Draft ECMA-262 / December 11, 2024

ECMAScriptยฎ 2025 Language Specification

About this Specification

The document at https://tc39.es/ecma262/ is the most accurate and up-to-date ECMAScript specification. It contains the content of the most recent yearly snapshot plus any finished proposals (those that have reached Stage 4 in the proposal process and thus are implemented in several implementations and will be in the next practical revision) since that snapshot was taken.

This document is available as a single page and as multiple pages.

Contributing to this Specification

This specification is developed on GitHub with the help of the ECMAScript community. There are a number of ways to contribute to the development of this specification:

Refer to the colophon for more information on how this document is created.

Introduction

This Ecma Standard defines the ECMAScript 2025 Language. It is the sixteenth edition of the ECMAScript Language Specification. Since publication of the first edition in 1997, ECMAScript has grown to be one of the world's most widely used general-purpose programming languages. It is best known as the language embedded in web browsers but has also been widely adopted for server and embedded applications.

ECMAScript is based on several originating technologies, the most well-known being JavaScript (Netscape) and JScript (Microsoft). The language was invented by Brendan Eich at Netscape and first appeared in that company's Navigator 2.0 browser. It has appeared in all subsequent browsers from Netscape and in all browsers from Microsoft starting with Internet Explorer 3.0.

The development of the ECMAScript Language Specification started in November 1996. The first edition of this Ecma Standard was adopted by the Ecma General Assembly of June 1997.

That Ecma Standard was submitted to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for adoption under the fast-track procedure, and approved as international standard ISO/IEC 16262, in April 1998. The Ecma General Assembly of June 1998 approved the second edition of ECMA-262 to keep it fully aligned with ISO/IEC 16262. Changes between the first and the second edition are editorial in nature.

The third edition of the Standard introduced powerful regular expressions, better string handling, new control statements, try/catch exception handling, tighter definition of errors, formatting for numeric output and minor changes in anticipation of future language growth. The third edition of the ECMAScript standard was adopted by the Ecma General Assembly of December 1999 and published as ISO/IEC 16262:2002 in June 2002.

After publication of the third edition, ECMAScript achieved massive adoption in conjunction with the World Wide Web where it has become the programming language that is supported by essentially all web browsers. Significant work was done to develop a fourth edition of ECMAScript. However, that work was not completed and not published as the fourth edition of ECMAScript but some of it was incorporated into the development of the sixth edition.

The fifth edition of ECMAScript (published as ECMA-262 5th edition) codified de facto interpretations of the language specification that have become common among browser implementations and added support for new features that had emerged since the publication of the third edition. Such features include accessor properties, reflective creation and inspection of objects, program control of property attributes, additional array manipulation functions, support for the JSON object encoding format, and a strict mode that provides enhanced error checking and program security. The fifth edition was adopted by the Ecma General Assembly of December 2009.

The fifth edition was submitted to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for adoption under the fast-track procedure, and approved as international standard ISO/IEC 16262:2011. Edition 5.1 of the ECMAScript Standard incorporated minor corrections and is the same text as ISO/IEC 16262:2011. The 5.1 Edition was adopted by the Ecma General Assembly of June 2011.

Focused development of the sixth edition started in 2009, as the fifth edition was being prepared for publication. However, this was preceded by significant experimentation and language enhancement design efforts dating to the publication of the third edition in 1999. In a very real sense, the completion of the sixth edition is the culmination of a fifteen year effort. The goals for this edition included providing better support for large applications, library creation, and for use of ECMAScript as a compilation target for other languages. Some of its major enhancements included modules, class declarations, lexical block scoping, iterators and generators, promises for asynchronous programming, destructuring patterns, and proper tail calls. The ECMAScript library of built-ins was expanded to support additional data abstractions including maps, sets, and arrays of binary numeric values as well as additional support for Unicode supplementary characters in strings and regular expressions. The built-ins were also made extensible via subclassing. The sixth edition provides the foundation for regular, incremental language and library enhancements. The sixth edition was adopted by the General Assembly of June 2015.

ECMAScript 2016 was the first ECMAScript edition released under Ecma TC39's new yearly release cadence and open development process. A plain-text source document was built from the ECMAScript 2015 source document to serve as the base for further development entirely on GitHub. Over the year of this standard's development, hundreds of pull requests and issues were filed representing thousands of bug fixes, editorial fixes and other improvements. Additionally, numerous software tools were developed to aid in this effort including Ecmarkup, Ecmarkdown, and Grammarkdown. ES2016 also included support for a new exponentiation operator and adds a new method to Array.prototype called includes.

ECMAScript 2017 introduced Async Functions, Shared Memory, and Atomics along with smaller language and library enhancements, bug fixes, and editorial updates. Async functions improve the asynchronous programming experience by providing syntax for promise-returning functions. Shared Memory and Atomics introduce a new memory model that allows multi-agent programs to communicate using atomic operations that ensure a well-defined execution order even on parallel CPUs. It also included new static methods on Object: Object.values, Object.entries, and Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptors.

ECMAScript 2018 introduced support for asynchronous iteration via the async iterator protocol and async generators. It also included four new regular expression features: the dotAll flag, named capture groups, Unicode property escapes, and look-behind assertions. Lastly it included object rest and spread properties.

ECMAScript 2019 introduced a few new built-in functions: flat and flatMap on Array.prototype for flattening arrays, Object.fromEntries for directly turning the return value of Object.entries into a new Object, and trimStart and trimEnd on String.prototype as better-named alternatives to the widely implemented but non-standard String.prototype.trimLeft and trimRight built-ins. In addition, it included a few minor updates to syntax and semantics. Updated syntax included optional catch binding parameters and allowing U+2028 (LINE SEPARATOR) and U+2029 (PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR) in string literals to align with JSON. Other updates included requiring that Array.prototype.sort be a stable sort, requiring that JSON.stringify return well-formed UTF-8 regardless of input, and clarifying Function.prototype.toString by requiring that it either return the corresponding original source text or a standard placeholder.

ECMAScript 2020, the 11th edition, introduced the matchAll method for Strings, to produce an iterator for all match objects generated by a global regular expression; import(), a syntax to asynchronously import Modules with a dynamic specifier; BigInt, a new number primitive for working with arbitrary precision integers; Promise.allSettled, a new Promise combinator that does not short-circuit; globalThis, a universal way to access the global this value; dedicated export * as ns from 'module' syntax for use within modules; increased standardization of for-in enumeration order; import.meta, a host-populated object available in Modules that may contain contextual information about the Module; as well as adding two new syntax features to improve working with โ€œnullishโ€ values (undefined or null): nullish coalescing, a value selection operator; and optional chaining, a property access and function invocation operator that short-circuits if the value to access/invoke is nullish.

ECMAScript 2021, the 12th edition, introduced the replaceAll method for Strings; Promise.any, a Promise combinator that short-circuits when an input value is fulfilled; AggregateError, a new Error type to represent multiple errors at once; logical assignment operators (??=, &&=, ||=); WeakRef, for referring to a target object without preserving it from garbage collection, and FinalizationRegistry, to manage registration and unregistration of cleanup operations performed when target objects are garbage collected; separators for numeric literals (1_000); and Array.prototype.sort was made more precise, reducing the amount of cases that result in an implementation-defined sort order.

ECMAScript 2022, the 13th edition, introduced top-level await, allowing the keyword to be used at the top level of modules; new class elements: public and private instance fields, public and private static fields, private instance methods and accessors, and private static methods and accessors; static blocks inside classes, to perform per-class evaluation initialization; the #x in obj syntax, to test for presence of private fields on objects; regular expression match indices via the /d flag, which provides start and end indices for matched substrings; the cause property on Error objects, which can be used to record a causation chain in errors; the at method for Strings, Arrays, and TypedArrays, which allows relative indexing; and Object.hasOwn, a convenient alternative to Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.

ECMAScript 2023, the 14th edition, introduced the toSorted, toReversed, with, findLast, and findLastIndex methods on Array.prototype and TypedArray.prototype, as well as the toSpliced method on Array.prototype; added support for #! comments at the beginning of files to better facilitate executable ECMAScript files; and allowed the use of most Symbols as keys in weak collections.

ECMAScript 2024, the 15th edition, added facilities for resizing and transferring ArrayBuffers and SharedArrayBuffers; added a new RegExp /v flag for creating RegExps with more advanced features for working with sets of strings; and introduced the Promise.withResolvers convenience method for constructing Promises, the Object.groupBy and Map.groupBy methods for aggregating data, the Atomics.waitAsync method for asynchronously waiting for a change to shared memory, and the String.prototype.isWellFormed and String.prototype.toWellFormed methods for checking and ensuring that strings contain only well-formed Unicode.

Dozens of individuals representing many organizations have made very significant contributions within Ecma TC39 to the development of this edition and to the prior editions. In addition, a vibrant community has emerged supporting TC39's ECMAScript efforts. This community has reviewed numerous drafts, filed thousands of bug reports, performed implementation experiments, contributed test suites, and educated the world-wide developer community about ECMAScript. Unfortunately, it is impossible to identify and acknowledge every person and organization who has contributed to this effort.

Allen Wirfs-Brock
ECMA-262, Project Editor, 6th Edition

Brian Terlson
ECMA-262, Project Editor, 7th through 10th Editions

Jordan Harband
ECMA-262, Project Editor, 10th through 12th Editions

Shu-yu Guo
ECMA-262, Project Editor, 12th through 15th Editions

Michael Ficarra
ECMA-262, Project Editor, 12th through 15th Editions

Kevin Gibbons
ECMA-262, Project Editor, 12th through 15th Editions

1 Scope

This Standard defines the ECMAScript 2025 general-purpose programming language.

2 Conformance

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript must provide and support all the types, values, objects, properties, functions, and program syntax and semantics described in this specification.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript must interpret source text input in conformance with the latest version of the Unicode Standard and ISO/IEC 10646.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript that provides an application programming interface (API) that supports programs that need to adapt to the linguistic and cultural conventions used by different human languages and countries must implement the interface defined by the most recent edition of ECMA-402 that is compatible with this specification.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript may provide additional types, values, objects, properties, and functions beyond those described in this specification. In particular, a conforming implementation of ECMAScript may provide properties not described in this specification, and values for those properties, for objects that are described in this specification.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript may support program and regular expression syntax not described in this specification. In particular, a conforming implementation of ECMAScript may support program syntax that makes use of any โ€œfuture reserved wordsโ€ noted in subclause 12.7.2 of this specification.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript must not implement any extension that is listed as a Forbidden Extension in subclause 17.1.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript must not redefine any facilities that are not implementation-defined, implementation-approximated, or host-defined.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript may choose to implement or not implement Normative Optional subclauses. If any Normative Optional behaviour is implemented, all of the behaviour in the containing Normative Optional clause must be implemented. A Normative Optional clause is denoted in this specification with the words "Normative Optional" in a coloured box, as shown below.

2.1 Example Normative Optional Clause Heading

Example clause contents.

A conforming implementation of ECMAScript must implement Legacy subclauses, unless they are also marked as Normative Optional. All of the language features and behaviours specified within Legacy subclauses have one or more undesirable characteristics. However, their continued usage in existing applications prevents their removal from this specification. These features are not considered part of the core ECMAScript language. Programmers should not use or assume the existence of these features and behaviours when writing new ECMAScript code.

2.2 Example Legacy Clause Heading

Example clause contents.

2.3 Example Legacy Normative Optional Clause Heading

Example clause contents.

3 Normative References

The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

IEEE 754-2019, IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic.

The Unicode Standard.
https://unicode.org/versions/latest

ISO/IEC 10646, Information Technology โ€” Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) plus Amendment 1:2005, Amendment 2:2006, Amendment 3:2008, Amendment 4:2008, and additional amendments and corrigenda, or successor.

ECMA-402, ECMAScript Internationalization API Specification, specifically the annual edition corresponding to this edition of this specification.
https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-402/

ECMA-404, The JSON Data Interchange Format.
https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-404/

4 Overview

This section contains a non-normative overview of the ECMAScript language.

ECMAScript is an object-oriented programming language for performing computations and manipulating computational objects within a host environment. ECMAScript as defined here is not intended to be computationally self-sufficient; indeed, there are no provisions in this specification for input of external data or output of computed results. Instead, it is expected that the computational environment of an ECMAScript program will provide not only the objects and other facilities described in this specification but also certain environment-specific objects, whose description and behaviour are beyond the scope of this specification except to indicate that they may provide certain properties that can be accessed and certain functions that can be called from an ECMAScript program.

ECMAScript was originally designed to be used as a scripting language, but has become widely used as a general-purpose programming language. A scripting language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. In such systems, useful functionality is already available through a user interface, and the scripting language is a mechanism for exposing that functionality to program control. In this way, the existing system is said to provide a host environment of objects and facilities, which completes the capabilities of the scripting language. A scripting language is intended for use by both professional and non-professional programmers.

ECMAScript was originally designed to be a Web scripting language, providing a mechanism to enliven Web pages in browsers and to perform server computation as part of a Web-based client-server architecture. ECMAScript is now used to provide core scripting capabilities for a variety of host environments. Therefore the core language is specified in this document apart from any particular host environment.

ECMAScript usage has moved beyond simple scripting and it is now used for the full spectrum of programming tasks in many different environments and scales. As the usage of ECMAScript has expanded, so have the features and facilities it provides. ECMAScript is now a fully featured general-purpose programming language.

4.1 Web Scripting

A web browser provides an ECMAScript host environment for client-side computation including, for instance, objects that represent windows, menus, pop-ups, dialog boxes, text areas, anchors, frames, history, cookies, and input/output. Further, the host environment provides a means to attach scripting code to events such as change of focus, page and image loading, unloading, error and abort, selection, form submission, and mouse actions. Scripting code appears within the HTML and the displayed page is a combination of user interface elements and fixed and computed text and images. The scripting code is reactive to user interaction, and there is no need for a main program.

A web server provides a different host environment for server-side computation including objects representing requests, clients, and files; and mechanisms to lock and share data. By using browser-side and server-side scripting together, it is possible to distribute computation between the client and server while providing a customized user interface for a Web-based application.

Each Web browser and server that supports ECMAScript supplies its own host environment, completing the ECMAScript execution environment.

4.2 Hosts and Implementations

To aid integrating ECMAScript into host environments, this specification defers the definition of certain facilities (e.g., abstract operations), either in whole or in part, to a source outside of this specification. Editorially, this specification distinguishes the following kinds of deferrals.

An implementation is an external source that further defines facilities enumerated in Annex D or those that are marked as implementation-defined or implementation-approximated. In informal use, an implementation refers to a concrete artefact, such as a particular web browser.

An implementation-defined facility is one that defers its definition to an external source without further qualification. This specification does not make any recommendations for particular behaviours, and conforming implementations are free to choose any behaviour within the constraints put forth by this specification.

An implementation-approximated facility is one that defers its definition to an external source while recommending an ideal behaviour. While conforming implementations are free to choose any behaviour within the constraints put forth by this specification, they are encouraged to strive to approximate the ideal. Some mathematical operations, such as Math.exp, are implementation-approximated.

A host is an external source that further defines facilities listed in Annex D but does not further define other implementation-defined or implementation-approximated facilities. In informal use, a host refers to the set of all implementations, such as the set of all web browsers, that interface with this specification in the same way via Annex D. A host is often an external specification, such as WHATWG HTML (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/). In other words, facilities that are host-defined are often further defined in external specifications.

A host hook is an abstract operation that is defined in whole or in part by an external source. All host hooks must be listed in Annex D. A host hook must conform to at least the following requirements:

A host-defined facility is one that defers its definition to an external source without further qualification and is listed in Annex D. Implementations that are not hosts may also provide definitions for host-defined facilities.

A host environment is a particular choice of definition for all host-defined facilities. A host environment typically includes objects or functions which allow obtaining input and providing output as host-defined properties of the global object.

This specification follows the editorial convention of always using the most specific term. For example, if a facility is host-defined, it should not be referred to as implementation-defined.

Both hosts and implementations may interface with this specification via the language types, specification types, abstract operations, grammar productions, intrinsic objects, and intrinsic symbols defined herein.

4.3 ECMAScript Overview

The following is an informal overview of ECMAScriptโ€”not all parts of the language are described. This overview is not part of the standard proper.

ECMAScript is object-based: basic language and host facilities are provided by objects, and an ECMAScript program is a cluster of communicating objects. In ECMAScript, an object is a collection of zero or more properties each with attributes that determine how each property can be usedโ€”for example, when the Writable attribute for a property is set to false, any attempt by executed ECMAScript code to assign a different value to the property fails. Properties are containers that hold other objects, primitive values, or functions. A primitive value is a member of one of the following built-in types: Undefined, Null, Boolean, Number, BigInt, String, and Symbol; an object is a member of the built-in type Object; and a function is a callable object. A function that is associated with an object via a property is called a method.

ECMAScript defines a collection of built-in objects that round out the definition of ECMAScript entities. These built-in objects include the global object; objects that are fundamental to the runtime semantics of the language including Object, Function, Boolean, Symbol, and various Error objects; objects that represent and manipulate numeric values including Math, Number, and Date; the text processing objects String and RegExp; objects that are indexed collections of values including Array and nine different kinds of Typed Arrays whose elements all have a specific numeric data representation; keyed collections including Map and Set objects; objects supporting structured data including the JSON object, ArrayBuffer, SharedArrayBuffer, and DataView; objects supporting control abstractions including generator functions and Promise objects; and reflection objects including Proxy and Reflect.

ECMAScript also defines a set of built-in operators. ECMAScript operators include various unary operations, multiplicative operators, additive operators, bitwise shift operators, relational operators, equality operators, binary bitwise operators, binary logical operators, assignment operators, and the comma operator.

Large ECMAScript programs are supported by modules which allow a program to be divided into multiple sequences of statements and declarations. Each module explicitly identifies declarations it uses that need to be provided by other modules and which of its declarations are available for use by other modules.

ECMAScript syntax intentionally resembles Java syntax. ECMAScript syntax is relaxed to enable it to serve as an easy-to-use scripting language. For example, a variable is not required to have its type declared nor are types associated with properties, and defined functions are not required to have their declarations appear textually before calls to them.

4.3.1 Objects

Even though ECMAScript includes syntax for class definitions, ECMAScript objects are not fundamentally class-based such as those in C++, Smalltalk, or Java. Instead objects may be created in various ways including via a literal notation or via constructors which create objects and then execute code that initializes all or part of them by assigning initial values to their properties. Each constructor is a function that has a property named "prototype" that is used to implement prototype-based inheritance and shared properties. Objects are created by using constructors in new expressions; for example, new Date(2009, 11) creates a new Date object. Invoking a constructor without using new has consequences that depend on the constructor. For example, Date() produces a string representation of the current date and time rather than an object.

Every object created by a constructor has an implicit reference (called the object's prototype) to the value of its constructor's "prototype" property. Furthermore, a prototype may have a non-null implicit reference to its prototype, and so on; this is called the prototype chain. When a reference is made to a property in an object, that reference is to the property of that name in the first object in the prototype chain that contains a property of that name. In other words, first the object mentioned directly is examined for such a property; if that object contains the named property, that is the property to which the reference refers; if that object does not contain the named property, the prototype for that object is examined next; and so on.

Figure 1: Object/Prototype Relationships
An image of lots of boxes and arrows.

In a class-based object-oriented language, in general, state is carried by instances, methods are carried by classes, and inheritance is only of structure and behaviour. In ECMAScript, the state and methods are carried by objects, while structure, behaviour, and state are all inherited.

All objects that do not directly contain a particular property that their prototype contains share that property and its value. Figure 1 illustrates this:

CF is a constructor (and also an object). Five objects have been created by using new expressions: cf1, cf2, cf3, cf4, and cf5. Each of these objects contains properties named "q1" and "q2". The dashed lines represent the implicit prototype relationship; so, for example, cf3's prototype is CFp. The constructor, CF, has two properties itself, named "P1" and "P2", which are not visible to CFp, cf1, cf2, cf3, cf4, or cf5. The property named "CFP1" in CFp is shared by cf1, cf2, cf3, cf4, and cf5 (but not by CF), as are any properties found in CFp's implicit prototype chain that are not named "q1", "q2", or "CFP1". Notice that there is no implicit prototype link between CF and CFp.

Unlike most class-based object languages, properties can be added to objects dynamically by assigning values to them. That is, constructors are not required to name or assign values to all or any of the constructed object's properties. In the above diagram, one could add a new shared property for cf1, cf2, cf3, cf4, and cf5 by assigning a new value to the property in CFp.

Although ECMAScript objects are not inherently class-based, it is often convenient to define class-like abstractions based upon a common pattern of constructor functions, prototype objects, and methods. The ECMAScript built-in objects themselves follow such a class-like pattern. Beginning with ECMAScript 2015, the ECMAScript language includes syntactic class definitions that permit programmers to concisely define objects that conform to the same class-like abstraction pattern used by the built-in objects.

4.3.2 The Strict Variant of ECMAScript

The ECMAScript Language recognizes the possibility that some users of the language may wish to restrict their usage of some features available in the language. They might do so in the interests of security, to avoid what they consider to be error-prone features, to get enhanced error checking, or for other reasons of their choosing. In support of this possibility, ECMAScript defines a strict variant of the language. The strict variant of the language excludes some specific syntactic and semantic features of the regular ECMAScript language and modifies the detailed semantics of some features. The strict variant also specifies additional error conditions that must be reported by throwing error exceptions in situations that are not specified as errors by the non-strict form of the language.

The strict variant of ECMAScript is commonly referred to as the strict mode of the language. Strict mode selection and use of the strict mode syntax and semantics of ECMAScript is explicitly made at the level of individual ECMAScript source text units as described in 11.2.2. Because strict mode is selected at the level of a syntactic source text unit, strict mode only imposes restrictions that have local effect within such a source text unit. Strict mode does not restrict or modify any aspect of the ECMAScript semantics that must operate consistently across multiple source text units. A complete ECMAScript program may be composed of both strict mode and non-strict mode ECMAScript source text units. In this case, strict mode only applies when actually executing code that is defined within a strict mode source text unit.

In order to conform to this specification, an ECMAScript implementation must implement both the full unrestricted ECMAScript language and the strict variant of the ECMAScript language as defined by this specification. In addition, an implementation must support the combination of unrestricted and strict mode source text units into a single composite program.

4.4 Terms and Definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

4.4.1 implementation-approximated

an implementation-approximated facility is defined in whole or in part by an external source but has a recommended, ideal behaviour in this specification

4.4.2 implementation-defined

an implementation-defined facility is defined in whole or in part by an external source to this specification

4.4.3 host-defined

same as implementation-defined

Note

Editorially, see clause 4.2.

4.4.4 type

set of data values as defined in clause 6

4.4.5 primitive value

member of one of the types Undefined, Null, Boolean, Number, BigInt, Symbol, or String as defined in clause 6

Note

A primitive value is a datum that is represented directly at the lowest level of the language implementation.

4.4.6 object

member of the type Object

Note

An object is a collection of properties and has a single prototype object. The prototype may be null.

4.4.7 constructor

function object that creates and initializes objects

Note

The value of a constructor's "prototype" property is a prototype object that is used to implement inheritance and shared properties.

4.4.8 prototype

object that provides shared properties for other objects

Note

When a constructor creates an object, that object implicitly references the constructor's "prototype" property for the purpose of resolving property references. The constructor's "prototype" property can be referenced by the program expression constructor.prototype, and properties added to an object's prototype are shared, through inheritance, by all objects sharing the prototype. Alternatively, a new object may be created with an explicitly specified prototype by using the Object.create built-in function.

4.4.9 ordinary object

object that has the default behaviour for the essential internal methods that must be supported by all objects

4.4.10 exotic object

object that does not have the default behaviour for one or more of the essential internal methods

Note

Any object that is not an ordinary object is an exotic object.

4.4.11 standard object

object whose semantics are defined by this specification

4.4.12 built-in object

object specified and supplied by an ECMAScript implementation

Note

Standard built-in objects are defined in this specification. An ECMAScript implementation may specify and supply additional kinds of built-in objects.

4.4.13 undefined value

primitive value used when a variable has not been assigned a value

4.4.14 Undefined type

type whose sole value is the undefined value

4.4.15 null value

primitive value that represents the intentional absence of any object value

4.4.16 Null type

type whose sole value is the null value

4.4.17 Boolean value

member of the Boolean type

Note

There are only two Boolean values, true and false.

4.4.18 Boolean type

type consisting of the primitive values true and false

4.4.19 Boolean object

member of the Object type that is an instance of the standard built-in Boolean constructor

Note

A Boolean object is created by using the Boolean constructor in a new expression, supplying a Boolean value as an argument. The resulting object has an internal slot whose value is the Boolean value. A Boolean object can be coerced to a Boolean value.

4.4.20 String value

primitive value that is a finite ordered sequence of zero or more 16-bit unsigned integer values

Note

A String value is a member of the String type. Each integer value in the sequence usually represents a single 16-bit unit of UTF-16 text. However, ECMAScript does not place any restrictions or requirements on the values except that they must be 16-bit unsigned integers.

4.4.21 String type

set of all possible String values

4.4.22 String object

member of the Object type that is an instance of the standard built-in String constructor

Note

A String object is created by using the String constructor in a new expression, supplying a String value as an argument. The resulting object has an internal slot whose value is the String value. A String object can be coerced to a String value by calling the String constructor as a function (22.1.1.1).

4.4.23 Number value

primitive value corresponding to a double-precision 64-bit binary format IEEE 754-2019 value

Note

A Number value is a member of the Number type and is a direct representation of a number.

4.4.24 Number type

set of all possible Number values including the special โ€œNot-a-Numberโ€ (NaN) value, positive infinity, and negative infinity

4.4.25 Number object

member of the Object type that is an instance of the standard built-in Number constructor

Note

A Number object is created by using the Number constructor in a new expression, supplying a Number value as an argument. The resulting object has an internal slot whose value is the Number value. A Number object can be coerced to a Number value by calling the Number constructor as a function (21.1.1.1).

4.4.26 Infinity

Number value that is the positive infinite Number value

4.4.27 NaN

Number value that is an IEEE 754-2019 โ€œNot-a-Numberโ€ value

4.4.28 BigInt value

primitive value corresponding to an arbitrary-precision integer value

4.4.29 BigInt type

set of all possible BigInt values

4.4.30 BigInt object

member of the Object type that is an instance of the standard built-in BigInt constructor

4.4.31 Symbol value

primitive value that represents a unique, non-String Object property key

4.4.32 Symbol type

set of all possible Symbol values

4.4.33 Symbol object

member of the Object type that is an instance of the standard built-in Symbol constructor

4.4.34 function

member of the Object type that may be invoked as a subroutine

Note

In addition to its properties, a function contains executable code and state that determine how it behaves when invoked. A function's code may or may not be written in ECMAScript.

4.4.35 built-in function

built-in object that is a function

Note

Examples of built-in functions include parseInt and Math.exp. A host or implementation may provide additional built-in functions that are not described in this specification.

4.4.36 built-in constructor

built-in function that is a constructor

Note

Examples of built-in constructors include Object and Function. A host or implementation may provide additional built-in constructors that are not described in this specification.

4.4.37 property

part of an object that associates a key (either a String value or a Symbol value) and a value

Note

Depending upon the form of the property the value may be represented either directly as a data value (a primitive value, an object, or a function object) or indirectly by a pair of accessor functions.

4.4.38 method

function that is the value of a property

Note

When a function is called as a method of an object, the object is passed to the function as its this value.

4.4.39 built-in method

method that is a built-in function

Note

Standard built-in methods are defined in this specification. A host or implementation may provide additional built-in methods that are not described in this specification.

4.4.40 attribute

internal value that defines some characteristic of a property

4.4.41 own property

property that is directly contained by its object

4.4.42 inherited property

property of an object that is not an own property but is a property (either own or inherited) of the object's prototype

4.5 Organization of This Specification

The remainder of this specification is organized as follows:

Clause 5 defines the notational conventions used throughout the specification.

Clauses 6 through 10 define the execution environment within which ECMAScript programs operate.

Clauses 11 through 17 define the actual ECMAScript programming language including its syntactic encoding and the execution semantics of all language features.

Clauses 18 through 28 define the ECMAScript standard library. They include the definitions of all of the standard objects that are available for use by ECMAScript programs as they execute.

Clause 29 describes the memory consistency model of accesses on SharedArrayBuffer-backed memory and methods of the Atomics object.

5 Notational Conventions

5.1 Syntactic and Lexical Grammars

5.1.1 Context-Free Grammars

A context-free grammar consists of a number of productions. Each production has an abstract symbol called a nonterminal as its left-hand side, and a sequence of zero or more nonterminal and terminal symbols as its right-hand side. For each grammar, the terminal symbols are drawn from a specified alphabet.

A chain production is a production that has exactly one nonterminal symbol on its right-hand side along with zero or more terminal symbols.

Starting from a sentence consisting of a single distinguished nonterminal, called the goal symbol, a given context-free grammar specifies a language, namely, the (perhaps infinite) set of possible sequences of terminal symbols that can result from repeatedly replacing any nonterminal in the sequence with a right-hand side of a production for which the nonterminal is the left-hand side.

5.1.2 The Lexical and RegExp Grammars

A lexical grammar for ECMAScript is given in clause 12. This grammar has as its terminal symbols Unicode code points that conform to the rules for SourceCharacter defined in 11.1. It defines a set of productions, starting from the goal symbol InputElementDiv, InputElementTemplateTail, InputElementRegExp, InputElementRegExpOrTemplateTail, or InputElementHashbangOrRegExp, that describe how sequences of such code points are translated into a sequence of input elements.

Input elements other than white space and comments form the terminal symbols for the syntactic grammar for ECMAScript and are called ECMAScript tokens. These tokens are the reserved words, identifiers, literals, and punctuators of the ECMAScript language. Moreover, line terminators, although not considered to be tokens, also become part of the stream of input elements and guide the process of automatic semicolon insertion (12.10). Simple white space and single-line comments are discarded and do not appear in the stream of input elements for the syntactic grammar. A MultiLineComment (that is, a comment of the form /*โ€ฆ*/ regardless of whether it spans more than one line) is likewise simply discarded if it contains no line terminator; but if a MultiLineComment contains one or more line terminators, then it is replaced by a single line terminator, which becomes part of the stream of input elements for the syntactic grammar.

A RegExp grammar for ECMAScript is given in 22.2.1. This grammar also has as its terminal symbols the code points as defined by SourceCharacter. It defines a set of productions, starting from the goal symbol Pattern, that describe how sequences of code points are translated into regular expression patterns.

Productions of the lexical and RegExp grammars are distinguished by having two colons โ€œ::โ€ as separating punctuation. The lexical and RegExp grammars share some productions.

5.1.3 The Numeric String Grammar

A numeric string grammar appears in 7.1.4.1. It has as its terminal symbols SourceCharacter, and is used for translating Strings into numeric values starting from the goal symbol StringNumericLiteral (which is similar to but distinct from the lexical grammar for numeric literals).

Productions of the numeric string grammar are distinguished by having three colons โ€œ:::โ€ as punctuation, and are never used for parsing source text.

5.1.4 The Syntactic Grammar

The syntactic grammar for ECMAScript is given in clauses 13 through 16. This grammar has ECMAScript tokens defined by the lexical grammar as its terminal symbols (5.1.2). It defines a set of productions, starting from two alternative goal symbols Script and Module, that describe how sequences of tokens form syntactically correct independent components of ECMAScript programs.

When a stream of code points is to be parsed as an ECMAScript Script or Module, it is first converted to a stream of input elements by repeated application of the lexical grammar; this stream of input elements is then parsed by a single application of the syntactic grammar. The input stream is syntactically in error if the tokens in the stream of input elements cannot be parsed as a single instance of the goal nonterminal (Script or Module), with no tokens left over.

When a parse is successful, it constructs a parse tree, a rooted tree structure in which each node is a Parse Node. Each Parse Node is an instance of a symbol in the grammar; it represents a span of the source text that can be derived from that symbol. The root node of the parse tree, representing the whole of the source text, is an instance of the parse's goal symbol. When a Parse Node is an instance of a nonterminal, it is also an instance of some production that has that nonterminal as its left-hand side. Moreover, it has zero or more children, one for each symbol on the production's right-hand side: each child is a Parse Node that is an instance of the corresponding symbol.

New Parse Nodes are instantiated for each invocation of the parser and never reused between parses even of identical source text. Parse Nodes are considered the same Parse Node if and only if they represent the same span of source text, are instances of the same grammar symbol, and resulted from the same parser invocation.

Note 1

Parsing the same String multiple times will lead to different Parse Nodes. For example, consider:

let str = "1 + 1;";
eval(str);
eval(str);

Each call to eval converts the value of str into ECMAScript source text and performs an independent parse that creates its own separate tree of Parse Nodes. The trees are distinct even though each parse operates upon a source text that was derived from the same String value.

Note 2
Parse Nodes are specification artefacts, and implementations are not required to use an analogous data structure.

Productions of the syntactic grammar are distinguished by having just one colon โ€œ:โ€ as punctuation.

The syntactic grammar as presented in clauses 13 through 16 is not a complete account of which token sequences are accepted as a correct ECMAScript Script or Module. Certain additional token sequences are also accepted, namely, those that would be described by the grammar if only semicolons were added to the sequence in certain places (such as before line terminator characters). Furthermore, certain token sequences that are described by the grammar are not considered acceptable if a line terminator character appears in certain โ€œawkwardโ€ places.

In certain cases, in order to avoid ambiguities, the syntactic grammar uses generalized productions that permit token sequences that do not form a valid ECMAScript Script or Module. For example, this technique is used for object literals and object destructuring patterns. In such cases a more restrictive supplemental grammar is provided that further restricts the acceptable token sequences. Typically, an early error rule will then state that, in certain contexts, "P must cover an N", where P is a Parse Node (an instance of the generalized production) and N is a nonterminal from the supplemental grammar. This means:

  1. The sequence of tokens originally matched by P is parsed again using N as the goal symbol. If N takes grammatical parameters, then they are set to the same values used when P was originally parsed.
  2. If the sequence of tokens can be parsed as a single instance of N, with no tokens left over, then:
    1. We refer to that instance of N (a Parse Node, unique for a given P) as "the N that is covered by P".
    2. All Early Error rules for N and its derived productions also apply to the N that is covered by P.
  3. Otherwise (if the parse fails), it is an early Syntax Error.

5.1.5 Grammar Notation

5.1.5.1 Terminal Symbols

In the ECMAScript grammars, some terminal symbols are shown in fixed-width font. These are to appear in a source text exactly as written. All terminal symbol code points specified in this way are to be understood as the appropriate Unicode code points from the Basic Latin block, as opposed to any similar-looking code points from other Unicode ranges. A code point in a terminal symbol cannot be expressed by a \ UnicodeEscapeSequence.

In grammars whose terminal symbols are individual Unicode code points (i.e., the lexical, RegExp, and numeric string grammars), a contiguous run of multiple fixed-width code points appearing in a production is a simple shorthand for the same sequence of code points, written as standalone terminal symbols.

For example, the production:

HexIntegerLiteral :: 0x HexDigits

is a shorthand for:

HexIntegerLiteral :: 0 x HexDigits

In contrast, in the syntactic grammar, a contiguous run of fixed-width code points is a single terminal symbol.

Terminal symbols come in two other forms:

  • In the lexical and RegExp grammars, Unicode code points without a conventional printed representation are instead shown in the form "<ABBREV>" where "ABBREV" is a mnemonic for the code point or set of code points. These forms are defined in Unicode Format-Control Characters, White Space, and Line Terminators.
  • In the syntactic grammar, certain terminal symbols (e.g. IdentifierName and RegularExpressionLiteral) are shown in italics, as they refer to the nonterminals of the same name in the lexical grammar.

5.1.5.2 Nonterminal Symbols and Productions

Nonterminal symbols are shown in italic type. The definition of a nonterminal (also called a โ€œproductionโ€) is introduced by the name of the nonterminal being defined followed by one or more colons. (The number of colons indicates to which grammar the production belongs.) One or more alternative right-hand sides for the nonterminal then follow on succeeding lines. For example, the syntactic definition:

WhileStatement : while ( Expression ) Statement

states that the nonterminal WhileStatement represents the token while, followed by a left parenthesis token, followed by an Expression, followed by a right parenthesis token, followed by a Statement. The occurrences of Expression and Statement are themselves nonterminals. As another example, the syntactic definition:

ArgumentList : AssignmentExpression ArgumentList , AssignmentExpression

states that an ArgumentList may represent either a single AssignmentExpression or an ArgumentList, followed by a comma, followed by an AssignmentExpression. This definition of ArgumentList is recursive, that is, it is defined in terms of itself. The result is that an ArgumentList may contain any positive number of arguments, separated by commas, where each argument expression is an AssignmentExpression. Such recursive definitions of nonterminals are common.

5.1.5.3 Optional Symbols

The subscripted suffix โ€œoptโ€, which may appear after a terminal or nonterminal, indicates an optional symbol. The alternative containing the optional symbol actually specifies two right-hand sides, one that omits the optional element and one that includes it. This means that:

VariableDeclaration : BindingIdentifier Initializeropt

is a convenient abbreviation for:

VariableDeclaration : BindingIdentifier BindingIdentifier Initializer

and that:

ForStatement : for ( LexicalDeclaration Expressionopt ; Expressionopt ) Statement

is a convenient abbreviation for:

ForStatement : for ( LexicalDeclaration ; Expressionopt ) Statement for ( LexicalDeclaration Expression ; Expressionopt ) Statement

which in turn is an abbreviation for:

ForStatement : for ( LexicalDeclaration ; ) Statement for ( LexicalDeclaration ; Expression ) Statement for ( LexicalDeclaration Expression ; ) Statement for ( LexicalDeclaration Expression ; Expression ) Statement

so, in this example, the nonterminal ForStatement actually has four alternative right-hand sides.

5.1.5.4 Grammatical Parameters

A production may be parameterized by a subscripted annotation of the form โ€œ[parameters]โ€, which may appear as a suffix to the nonterminal symbol defined by the production. โ€œparametersโ€ may be either a single name or a comma separated list of names. A parameterized production is shorthand for a set of productions defining all combinations of the parameter names, preceded by an underscore, appended to the parameterized nonterminal symbol. This means that:

StatementList[Return] : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

is a convenient abbreviation for:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement StatementList_Return : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

and that:

StatementList[Return, In] : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

is an abbreviation for:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement StatementList_Return : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement StatementList_In : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement StatementList_Return_In : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

Multiple parameters produce a combinatoric number of productions, not all of which are necessarily referenced in a complete grammar.

References to nonterminals on the right-hand side of a production can also be parameterized. For example:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement[+In]

is equivalent to saying:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement_In

and:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement[~In]

is equivalent to:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

A nonterminal reference may have both a parameter list and an โ€œoptโ€ suffix. For example:

VariableDeclaration : BindingIdentifier Initializer[+In]opt

is an abbreviation for:

VariableDeclaration : BindingIdentifier BindingIdentifier Initializer_In

Prefixing a parameter name with โ€œ?โ€ on a right-hand side nonterminal reference makes that parameter value dependent upon the occurrence of the parameter name on the reference to the current production's left-hand side symbol. For example:

VariableDeclaration[In] : BindingIdentifier Initializer[?In]

is an abbreviation for:

VariableDeclaration : BindingIdentifier Initializer VariableDeclaration_In : BindingIdentifier Initializer_In

If a right-hand side alternative is prefixed with โ€œ[+parameter]โ€ that alternative is only available if the named parameter was used in referencing the production's nonterminal symbol. If a right-hand side alternative is prefixed with โ€œ[~parameter]โ€ that alternative is only available if the named parameter was not used in referencing the production's nonterminal symbol. This means that:

StatementList[Return] : [+Return] ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

is an abbreviation for:

StatementList : ExpressionStatement StatementList_Return : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

and that:

StatementList[Return] : [~Return] ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement

is an abbreviation for:

StatementList : ReturnStatement ExpressionStatement StatementList_Return : ExpressionStatement

5.1.5.5 one of

When the words โ€œone ofโ€ follow the colon(s) in a grammar definition, they signify that each of the terminal symbols on the following line or lines is an alternative definition. For example, the lexical grammar for ECMAScript contains the production:

NonZeroDigit :: one of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

which is merely a convenient abbreviation for:

NonZeroDigit :: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

5.1.5.6 [empty]

If the phrase โ€œ[empty]โ€ appears as the right-hand side of a production, it indicates that the production's right-hand side contains no terminals or nonterminals.

5.1.5.7 Lookahead Restrictions

If the phrase โ€œ[lookahead = seq]โ€ appears in the right-hand side of a production, it indicates that the production may only be used if the token sequence seq is a prefix of the immediately following input token sequence. Similarly, โ€œ[lookahead โˆˆ set]โ€, where set is a finite non-empty set of token sequences, indicates that the production may only be used if some element of set is a prefix of the immediately following token sequence. For convenience, the set can also be written as a nonterminal, in which case it represents the set of all token sequences to which that nonterminal could expand. It is considered an editorial error if the nonterminal could expand to infinitely many distinct token sequences.

These conditions may be negated. โ€œ[lookahead โ‰  seq]โ€ indicates that the containing production may only be used if seq is not a prefix of the immediately following input token sequence, and โ€œ[lookahead โˆ‰ set]โ€ indicates that the production may only be used if no element of set is a prefix of the immediately following token sequence.

As an example, given the definitions:

DecimalDigit :: one of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DecimalDigits :: DecimalDigit DecimalDigits DecimalDigit

the definition:

LookaheadExample :: n [lookahead โˆ‰ { 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 }] DecimalDigits DecimalDigit [lookahead โˆ‰ DecimalDigit]

matches either the letter n followed by one or more decimal digits the first of which is even, or a decimal digit not followed by another decimal digit.

Note that when these phrases are used in the syntactic grammar, it may not be possible to unambiguously identify the immediately following token sequence because determining later tokens requires knowing which lexical goal symbol to use at later positions. As such, when these are used in the syntactic grammar, it is considered an editorial error for a token sequence seq to appear in a lookahead restriction (including as part of a set of sequences) if the choices of lexical goal symbols to use could change whether or not seq would be a prefix of the resulting token sequence.

5.1.5.8 [no LineTerminator here]

If the phrase โ€œ[no LineTerminator here]โ€ appears in the right-hand side of a production of the syntactic grammar, it indicates that the production is a restricted production: it may not be used if a LineTerminator occurs in the input stream at the indicated position. For example, the production:

ThrowStatement : throw [no LineTerminator here] Expression ;

indicates that the production may not be used if a LineTerminator occurs in the script between the throw token and the Expression.

Unless the presence of a LineTerminator is forbidden by a restricted production, any number of occurrences of LineTerminator may appear between any two consecutive tokens in the stream of input elements without affecting the syntactic acceptability of the script.

5.1.5.9 but not

The right-hand side of a production may specify that certain expansions are not permitted by using the phrase โ€œbut notโ€ and then indicating the expansions to be excluded. For example, the production:

Identifier :: IdentifierName but not ReservedWord

means that the nonterminal Identifier may be replaced by any sequence of code points that could replace IdentifierName provided that the same sequence of code points could not replace ReservedWord.

5.1.5.10 Descriptive Phrases

Finally, a few nonterminal symbols are described by a descriptive phrase in sans-serif type in cases where it would be impractical to list all the alternatives:

SourceCharacter :: any Unicode code point

5.2 Algorithm Conventions

The specification often uses a numbered list to specify steps in an algorithm. These algorithms are used to precisely specify the required semantics of ECMAScript language constructs. The algorithms are not intended to imply the use of any specific implementation technique. In practice, there may be more efficient algorithms available to implement a given feature.

Algorithms may be explicitly parameterized with an ordered, comma-separated sequence of alias names which may be used within the algorithm steps to reference the argument passed in that position. Optional parameters are denoted with surrounding brackets ([ , name ]) and are no different from required parameters within algorithm steps. A rest parameter may appear at the end of a parameter list, denoted with leading ellipsis (, ...name). The rest parameter captures all of the arguments provided following the required and optional parameters into a List. If there are no such additional arguments, that List is empty.

Algorithm steps may be subdivided into sequential substeps. Substeps are indented and may themselves be further divided into indented substeps. Outline numbering conventions are used to identify substeps with the first level of substeps labelled with lowercase alphabetic characters and the second level of substeps labelled with lowercase roman numerals. If more than three levels are required these rules repeat with the fourth level using numeric labels. For example:

  1. Top-level step
    1. Substep.
    2. Substep.
      1. Subsubstep.
        1. Subsubsubstep
          1. Subsubsubsubstep
            1. Subsubsubsubsubstep

A step or substep may be written as an โ€œifโ€ predicate that conditions its substeps. In this case, the substeps are only applied if the predicate is true. If a step or substep begins with the word โ€œelseโ€, it is a predicate that is the negation of the preceding โ€œifโ€ predicate step at the same level.

A step may specify the iterative application of its substeps.

A step that begins with โ€œAssert:โ€ asserts an invariant condition of its algorithm. Such assertions are used to make explicit algorithmic invariants that would otherwise be implicit. Such assertions add no additional semantic requirements and hence need not be checked by an implementation. They are used simply to clarify algorithms.

Algorithm steps may declare named aliases for any value using the form โ€œLet x be someValueโ€. These aliases are reference-like in that both x and someValue refer to the same underlying data and modifications to either are visible to both. Algorithm steps that want to avoid this reference-like behaviour should explicitly make a copy of the right-hand side: โ€œLet x be a copy of someValueโ€ creates a shallow copy of someValue.

Once declared, an alias may be referenced in any subsequent steps and must not be referenced from steps prior to the alias's declaration. Aliases may be modified using the form โ€œSet x to someOtherValueโ€.

5.2.1 Abstract Operations

In order to facilitate their use in multiple parts of this specification, some algorithms, called abstract operations, are named and written in parameterized functional form so that they may be referenced by name from within other algorithms. Abstract operations are typically referenced using a functional application style such as OperationName(arg1, arg2). Some abstract operations are treated as polymorphically dispatched methods of class-like specification abstractions. Such method-like abstract operations are typically referenced using a method application style such as someValue.OperationName(arg1, arg2).

5.2.2 Syntax-Directed Operations

A syntax-directed operation is a named operation whose definition consists of algorithms, each of which is associated with one or more productions from one of the ECMAScript grammars. A production that has multiple alternative definitions will typically have a distinct algorithm for each alternative. When an algorithm is associated with a grammar production, it may reference the terminal and nonterminal symbols of the production alternative as if they were parameters of the algorithm. When used in this manner, nonterminal symbols refer to the actual alternative definition that is matched when parsing the source text. The source text matched by a grammar production or Parse Node derived from it is the portion of the source text that starts at the beginning of the first terminal that participated in the match and ends at the end of the last terminal that participated in the match.

When an algorithm is associated with a production alternative, the alternative is typically shown without any โ€œ[ ]โ€ grammar annotations. Such annotations should only affect the syntactic recognition of the alternative and have no effect on the associated semantics for the alternative.

Syntax-directed operations are invoked with a parse node and, optionally, other parameters by using the conventions on steps 1, 3, and 4 in the following algorithm:

  1. Let status be SyntaxDirectedOperation of SomeNonTerminal.
  2. Let someParseNode be the parse of some source text.
  3. Perform SyntaxDirectedOperation of someParseNode.
  4. Perform SyntaxDirectedOperation of someParseNode with argument "value".

Unless explicitly specified otherwise, all chain productions have an implicit definition for every operation that might be applied to that production's left-hand side nonterminal. The implicit definition simply reapplies the same operation with the same parameters, if any, to the chain production's sole right-hand side nonterminal and then returns the result. For example, assume that some algorithm has a step of the form: โ€œReturn Evaluation of Blockโ€ and that there is a production:

Block : { StatementList }

but the Evaluation operation does not associate an algorithm with that production. In that case, the Evaluation operation implicitly includes an association of the form:

Runtime Semantics: Evaluation

Block : { StatementList }
  1. Return Evaluation of StatementList.

5.2.3 Runtime Semantics

Algorithms which specify semantics that must be called at runtime are called runtime semantics. Runtime semantics are defined by abstract operations or syntax-directed operations.

5.2.3.1 Completion ( completionRecord )

The abstract operation Completion takes argument completionRecord (a Completion Record) and returns a Completion Record. It is used to emphasize that a Completion Record is being returned. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Assert: completionRecord is a Completion Record.
  2. Return completionRecord.

5.2.3.2 Throw an Exception

Algorithms steps that say to throw an exception, such as

  1. Throw a TypeError exception.

mean the same things as:

  1. Return ThrowCompletion(a newly created TypeError object).

5.2.3.3 ReturnIfAbrupt

Algorithms steps that say or are otherwise equivalent to:

  1. ReturnIfAbrupt(argument).

mean the same thing as:

  1. Assert: argument is a Completion Record.
  2. If argument is an abrupt completion, return Completion(argument).
  3. Else, set argument to argument.[[Value]].

Algorithms steps that say or are otherwise equivalent to:

  1. ReturnIfAbrupt(AbstractOperation()).

mean the same thing as:

  1. Let hygienicTemp be AbstractOperation().
  2. Assert: hygienicTemp is a Completion Record.
  3. If hygienicTemp is an abrupt completion, return Completion(hygienicTemp).
  4. Else, set hygienicTemp to hygienicTemp.[[Value]].

Where hygienicTemp is ephemeral and visible only in the steps pertaining to ReturnIfAbrupt.

Algorithms steps that say or are otherwise equivalent to:

  1. Let result be AbstractOperation(ReturnIfAbrupt(argument)).

mean the same thing as:

  1. Assert: argument is a Completion Record.
  2. If argument is an abrupt completion, return Completion(argument).
  3. Else, set argument to argument.[[Value]].
  4. Let result be AbstractOperation(argument).

5.2.3.4 ReturnIfAbrupt Shorthands

Invocations of abstract operations and syntax-directed operations that are prefixed by ? indicate that ReturnIfAbrupt should be applied to the resulting Completion Record. For example, the step:

  1. ? OperationName().

is equivalent to the following step:

  1. ReturnIfAbrupt(OperationName()).

Similarly, for method application style, the step:

  1. someValue.OperationName().

is equivalent to:

  1. ReturnIfAbrupt(someValue.OperationName()).

Similarly, prefix ! is used to indicate that the following invocation of an abstract or syntax-directed operation will never return an abrupt completion and that the resulting Completion Record's [[Value]] field should be used in place of the return value of the operation. For example, the step:

  1. Let val be ! OperationName().

is equivalent to the following steps:

  1. Let val be OperationName().
  2. Assert: val is a normal completion.
  3. Set val to val.[[Value]].

Syntax-directed operations for runtime semantics make use of this shorthand by placing ! or ? before the invocation of the operation:

  1. Perform ! SyntaxDirectedOperation of NonTerminal.

5.2.3.5 Implicit Normal Completion

In algorithms within abstract operations which are declared to return a Completion Record, and within all built-in functions, the returned value is first passed to NormalCompletion, and the result is used instead. This rule does not apply within the Completion algorithm or when the value being returned is clearly marked as a Completion Record in that step; these cases are:

It is an editorial error if a Completion Record is returned from such an abstract operation through any other means. For example, within these abstract operations,

  1. Return true.

means the same things as any of

  1. Return NormalCompletion(true).

or

  1. Let completion be NormalCompletion(true).
  2. Return Completion(completion).

or

  1. Return Completion Record { [[Type]]: normal, [[Value]]: true, [[Target]]: empty }.

Note that, through the ReturnIfAbrupt expansion, the following example is allowed, as within the expanded steps, the result of applying Completion is returned directly in the abrupt case and the implicit NormalCompletion application occurs after unwrapping in the normal case.

  1. Return ? completion.

The following example would be an editorial error because a Completion Record is being returned without being annotated in that step.

  1. Let completion be NormalCompletion(true).
  2. Return completion.

5.2.4 Static Semantics

Context-free grammars are not sufficiently powerful to express all the rules that define whether a stream of input elements form a valid ECMAScript Script or Module that may be evaluated. In some situations additional rules are needed that may be expressed using either ECMAScript algorithm conventions or prose requirements. Such rules are always associated with a production of a grammar and are called the static semantics of the production.

Static Semantic Rules have names and typically are defined using an algorithm. Named Static Semantic Rules are associated with grammar productions and a production that has multiple alternative definitions will typically have for each alternative a distinct algorithm for each applicable named static semantic rule.

A special kind of static semantic rule is an Early Error Rule. Early error rules define early error conditions (see clause 17) that are associated with specific grammar productions. Evaluation of most early error rules are not explicitly invoked within the algorithms of this specification. A conforming implementation must, prior to the first evaluation of a Script or Module, validate all of the early error rules of the productions used to parse that Script or Module. If any of the early error rules are violated the Script or Module is invalid and cannot be evaluated.

5.2.5 Mathematical Operations

This specification makes reference to these kinds of numeric values:

  • Mathematical values: Arbitrary real numbers, used as the default numeric type.
  • Extended mathematical values: Mathematical values together with +โˆž and -โˆž.
  • Numbers: IEEE 754-2019 binary64 (double-precision floating point) values.
  • BigInts: ECMAScript language values representing arbitrary integers in a one-to-one correspondence.

In the language of this specification, numerical values are distinguished among different numeric kinds using subscript suffixes. The subscript ๐”ฝ refers to Numbers, and the subscript โ„ค refers to BigInts. Numeric values without a subscript suffix refer to mathematical values. This specification denotes most numeric values in base 10; it also uses numeric values of the form 0x followed by digits 0-9 or A-F as base-16 values.

In general, when this specification refers to a numerical value, such as in the phrase, "the length of y" or "the integer represented by the four hexadecimal digits ...", without explicitly specifying a numeric kind, the phrase refers to a mathematical value. Phrases which refer to a Number or a BigInt value are explicitly annotated as such; for example, "the Number value for the number of code points in โ€ฆ" or "the BigInt value for โ€ฆ".

When the term integer is used in this specification, it refers to a mathematical value which is in the set of integers, unless otherwise stated. When the term integral Number is used in this specification, it refers to a finite Number value whose mathematical value is in the set of integers.

Numeric operators such as +, ร—, =, and โ‰ฅ refer to those operations as determined by the type of the operands. When applied to mathematical values, the operators refer to the usual mathematical operations. When applied to extended mathematical values, the operators refer to the usual mathematical operations over the extended real numbers; indeterminate forms are not defined and their use in this specification should be considered an editorial error. When applied to Numbers, the operators refer to the relevant operations within IEEE 754-2019. When applied to BigInts, the operators refer to the usual mathematical operations applied to the mathematical value of the BigInt. Numeric operators applied to mixed-type operands (such as a Number and a mathematical value) are not defined and should be considered an editorial error in this specification.

Conversions between mathematical values and Numbers or BigInts are always explicit in this document. A conversion from a mathematical value or extended mathematical value x to a Number is denoted as "the Number value for x" or ๐”ฝ(x), and is defined in 6.1.6.1. A conversion from an integer x to a BigInt is denoted as "the BigInt value for x" or โ„ค(x). A conversion from a Number or BigInt x to a mathematical value is denoted as "the mathematical value of x", or โ„(x). The mathematical value of +0๐”ฝ and -0๐”ฝ is the mathematical value 0. The mathematical value of non-finite values is not defined. The extended mathematical value of x is the mathematical value of x for finite values, and is +โˆž and -โˆž for +โˆž๐”ฝ and -โˆž๐”ฝ respectively; it is not defined for NaN.

The mathematical function abs(x) produces the absolute value of x, which is -x if x < 0 and otherwise is x itself.

The mathematical function min(x1, x2, โ€ฆ , xN) produces the mathematically smallest of x1 through xN. The mathematical function max(x1, x2, ..., xN) produces the mathematically largest of x1 through xN. The domain and range of these mathematical functions are the extended mathematical values.

The notation โ€œx modulo yโ€ (y must be finite and non-zero) computes a value k of the same sign as y (or zero) such that abs(k) < abs(y) and x - k = q ร— y for some integer q.

The phrase "the result of clamping x between lower and upper" (where x is an extended mathematical value and lower and upper are mathematical values such that lower โ‰ค upper) produces lower if x < lower, produces upper if x > upper, and otherwise produces x.

The mathematical function floor(x) produces the largest integer (closest to +โˆž) that is not larger than x.

Note

floor(x) = x - (x modulo 1).

The mathematical function truncate(x) removes the fractional part of x by rounding towards zero, producing -floor(-x) if x < 0 and otherwise producing floor(x).

Mathematical functions min, max, abs, floor, and truncate are not defined for Numbers and BigInts, and any usage of those methods that have non-mathematical value arguments would be an editorial error in this specification.

An interval from lower bound a to upper bound b is a possibly-infinite, possibly-empty set of numeric values of the same numeric type. Each bound will be described as either inclusive or exclusive, but not both. There are four kinds of intervals, as follows:

  • An interval from a (inclusive) to b (inclusive), also called an inclusive interval from a to b, includes all values x of the same numeric type such that a โ‰ค x โ‰ค b, and no others.
  • An interval from a (inclusive) to b (exclusive) includes all values x of the same numeric type such that a โ‰ค x < b, and no others.
  • An interval from a (exclusive) to b (inclusive) includes all values x of the same numeric type such that a < x โ‰ค b, and no others.
  • An interval from a (exclusive) to b (exclusive) includes all values x of the same numeric type such that a < x < b, and no others.

For example, the interval from 1 (inclusive) to 2 (exclusive) consists of all mathematical values between 1 and 2, including 1 and not including 2. For the purpose of defining intervals, -0๐”ฝ < +0๐”ฝ, so, for example, an inclusive interval with a lower bound of +0๐”ฝ includes +0๐”ฝ but not -0๐”ฝ. NaN is never included in an interval.

5.2.6 Value Notation

In this specification, ECMAScript language values are displayed in bold. Examples include null, true, or "hello". These are distinguished from ECMAScript source text such as Function.prototype.apply or let n = 42;.

5.2.7 Identity

In this specification, both specification values and ECMAScript language values are compared for equality. When comparing for equality, values fall into one of two categories. Values without identity are equal to other values without identity if all of their innate characteristics are the same โ€” characteristics such as the magnitude of an integer or the length of a sequence. Values without identity may be manifest without prior reference by fully describing their characteristics. In contrast, each value with identity is unique and therefore only equal to itself. Values with identity are like values without identity but with an additional unguessable, unchangeable, universally-unique characteristic called identity. References to existing values with identity cannot be manifest simply by describing them, as the identity itself is indescribable; instead, references to these values must be explicitly passed from one place to another. Some values with identity are mutable and therefore can have their characteristics (except their identity) changed in-place, causing all holders of the value to observe the new characteristics. A value without identity is never equal to a value with identity.

From the perspective of this specification, the word โ€œisโ€ is used to compare two values for equality, as in โ€œIf bool is true, then ...โ€, and the word โ€œcontainsโ€ is used to search for a value inside lists using equality comparisons, as in "If list contains a Record r such that r.[[Foo]] is true, then ...". The specification identity of values determines the result of these comparisons and is axiomatic in this specification.

From the perspective of the ECMAScript language, language values are compared for equality using the SameValue abstract operation and the abstract operations it transitively calls. The algorithms of these comparison abstract operations determine language identity of ECMAScript language values.

For specification values, examples of values without specification identity include, but are not limited to: mathematical values and extended mathematical values; ECMAScript source text, surrogate pairs, Directive Prologues, etc; UTF-16 code units; Unicode code points; enums; abstract operations, including syntax-directed operations, host hooks, etc; and ordered pairs. Examples of specification values with specification identity include, but are not limited to: any kind of Records, including Property Descriptors, PrivateElements, etc; Parse Nodes; Lists; Sets and Relations; Abstract Closures; Data Blocks; Private Names; execution contexts and execution context stacks; agent signifiers; and WaiterList Records.

Specification identity agrees with language identity for all ECMAScript language values except Symbol values produced by Symbol.for. The ECMAScript language values without specification identity and without language identity are undefined, null, Booleans, Strings, Numbers, and BigInts. The ECMAScript language values with specification identity and language identity are Symbols not produced by Symbol.for and Objects. Symbol values produced by Symbol.for have specification identity, but not language identity.

6 ECMAScript Data Types and Values

Algorithms within this specification manipulate values each of which has an associated type. The possible value types are exactly those defined in this clause. Types are further classified into ECMAScript language types and specification types.

6.1 ECMAScript Language Types

An ECMAScript language type corresponds to values that are directly manipulated by an ECMAScript programmer using the ECMAScript language. The ECMAScript language types are Undefined, Null, Boolean, String, Symbol, Number, BigInt, and Object. An ECMAScript language value is a value that is characterized by an ECMAScript language type.

6.1.1 The Undefined Type

The Undefined type has exactly one value, called undefined. Any variable that has not been assigned a value has the value undefined.

6.1.2 The Null Type

The Null type has exactly one value, called null.

6.1.3 The Boolean Type

The Boolean type represents a logical entity having two values, called true and false.

6.1.4 The String Type

The String type is the set of all ordered sequences of zero or more 16-bit unsigned integer values (โ€œelementsโ€) up to a maximum length of 253 - 1 elements. The String type is generally used to represent textual data in a running ECMAScript program, in which case each element in the String is treated as a UTF-16 code unit value. Each element is regarded as occupying a position within the sequence. These positions are indexed with non-negative integers. The first element (if any) is at index 0, the next element (if any) at index 1, and so on. The length of a String is the number of elements (i.e., 16-bit values) within it. The empty String has length zero and therefore contains no elements.

ECMAScript operations that do not interpret String contents apply no further semantics. Operations that do interpret String values treat each element as a single UTF-16 code unit. However, ECMAScript does not restrict the value of or relationships between these code units, so operations that further interpret String contents as sequences of Unicode code points encoded in UTF-16 must account for ill-formed subsequences. Such operations apply special treatment to every code unit with a numeric value in the inclusive interval from 0xD800 to 0xDBFF (defined by the Unicode Standard as a leading surrogate, or more formally as a high-surrogate code unit) and every code unit with a numeric value in the inclusive interval from 0xDC00 to 0xDFFF (defined as a trailing surrogate, or more formally as a low-surrogate code unit) using the following rules:

The function String.prototype.normalize (see 22.1.3.15) can be used to explicitly normalize a String value. String.prototype.localeCompare (see 22.1.3.12) internally normalizes String values, but no other operations implicitly normalize the strings upon which they operate. Operation results are not language- and/or locale-sensitive unless stated otherwise.

Note

The rationale behind this design was to keep the implementation of Strings as simple and high-performing as possible. If ECMAScript source text is in Normalized Form C, string literals are guaranteed to also be normalized, as long as they do not contain any Unicode escape sequences.

In this specification, the phrase "the string-concatenation of A, B, ..." (where each argument is a String value, a code unit, or a sequence of code units) denotes the String value whose sequence of code units is the concatenation of the code units (in order) of each of the arguments (in order).

The phrase "the substring of S from inclusiveStart to exclusiveEnd" (where S is a String value or a sequence of code units and inclusiveStart and exclusiveEnd are integers) denotes the String value consisting of the consecutive code units of S beginning at index inclusiveStart and ending immediately before index exclusiveEnd (which is the empty String when inclusiveStart = exclusiveEnd). If the "to" suffix is omitted, the length of S is used as the value of exclusiveEnd.

The phrase "the ASCII word characters" denotes the following String value, which consists solely of every letter and number in the Unicode Basic Latin block along with U+005F (LOW LINE):
"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789_".
For historical reasons, it has significance to various algorithms.

6.1.4.1 StringIndexOf ( string, searchValue, fromIndex )

The abstract operation StringIndexOf takes arguments string (a String), searchValue (a String), and fromIndex (a non-negative integer) and returns a non-negative integer or not-found. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let len be the length of string.
  2. If searchValue is the empty String and fromIndex โ‰ค len, return fromIndex.
  3. Let searchLen be the length of searchValue.
  4. For each integer i such that fromIndex โ‰ค i โ‰ค len - searchLen, in ascending order, do
    1. Let candidate be the substring of string from i to i + searchLen.
    2. If candidate is searchValue, return i.
  5. Return not-found.
Note 1

If searchValue is the empty String and fromIndex โ‰ค the length of string, this algorithm returns fromIndex. The empty String is effectively found at every position within a string, including after the last code unit.

Note 2

This algorithm always returns not-found if fromIndex + the length of searchValue > the length of string.

6.1.4.2 StringLastIndexOf ( string, searchValue, fromIndex )

The abstract operation StringLastIndexOf takes arguments string (a String), searchValue (a String), and fromIndex (a non-negative integer) and returns a non-negative integer or not-found. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let len be the length of string.
  2. Let searchLen be the length of searchValue.
  3. Assert: fromIndex + searchLen โ‰ค len.
  4. For each integer i such that 0 โ‰ค i โ‰ค fromIndex, in descending order, do
    1. Let candidate be the substring of string from i to i + searchLen.
    2. If candidate is searchValue, return i.
  5. Return not-found.
Note

If searchValue is the empty String, this algorithm returns fromIndex. The empty String is effectively found at every position within a string, including after the last code unit.

6.1.5 The Symbol Type

The Symbol type is the set of all non-String values that may be used as the key of an Object property (6.1.7).

Each possible Symbol value is unique and immutable.

Each Symbol value immutably holds an associated value called [[Description]] that is either undefined or a String value.

6.1.5.1 Well-Known Symbols

Well-known symbols are built-in Symbol values that are explicitly referenced by algorithms of this specification. They are typically used as the keys of properties whose values serve as extension points of a specification algorithm. Unless otherwise specified, well-known symbols values are shared by all realms (9.3).

Within this specification a well-known symbol is referred to using the standard intrinsic notation where the intrinsic is one of the values listed in Table 1.

Note
Previous editions of this specification used a notation of the form @@name, where the current edition would use %Symbol.name%. In particular, the following names were used: @@asyncIterator, @@hasInstance, @@isConcatSpreadable, @@iterator, @@match, @@matchAll, @@replace, @@search, @@species, @@split, @@toPrimitive, @@toStringTag, and @@unscopables.
Table 1: Well-known Symbols
Specification Name [[Description]] Value and Purpose
%Symbol.asyncIterator% "Symbol.asyncIterator" A method that returns the default async iterator for an object. Called by the semantics of the for-await-of statement.
%Symbol.hasInstance% "Symbol.hasInstance" A method that determines if a constructor object recognizes an object as one of the constructor's instances. Called by the semantics of the instanceof operator.
%Symbol.isConcatSpreadable% "Symbol.isConcatSpreadable" A Boolean valued property that if true indicates that an object should be flattened to its array elements by Array.prototype.concat.
%Symbol.iterator% "Symbol.iterator" A method that returns the default iterator for an object. Called by the semantics of the for-of statement.
%Symbol.match% "Symbol.match" A regular expression method that matches the regular expression against a string. Called by the String.prototype.match method.
%Symbol.matchAll% "Symbol.matchAll" A regular expression method that returns an iterator that yields matches of the regular expression against a string. Called by the String.prototype.matchAll method.
%Symbol.replace% "Symbol.replace" A regular expression method that replaces matched substrings of a string. Called by the String.prototype.replace method.
%Symbol.search% "Symbol.search" A regular expression method that returns the index within a string that matches the regular expression. Called by the String.prototype.search method.
%Symbol.species% "Symbol.species" A function valued property that is the constructor function that is used to create derived objects.
%Symbol.split% "Symbol.split" A regular expression method that splits a string at the indices that match the regular expression. Called by the String.prototype.split method.
%Symbol.toPrimitive% "Symbol.toPrimitive" A method that converts an object to a corresponding primitive value. Called by the ToPrimitive abstract operation.
%Symbol.toStringTag% "Symbol.toStringTag" A String valued property that is used in the creation of the default string description of an object. Accessed by the built-in method Object.prototype.toString.
%Symbol.unscopables% "Symbol.unscopables" An object valued property whose own and inherited property names are property names that are excluded from the with environment bindings of the associated object.

6.1.6 Numeric Types

ECMAScript has two built-in numeric types: Number and BigInt. The following abstract operations are defined over these numeric types. The "Result" column shows the return type, along with an indication if it is possible for some invocations of the operation to return an abrupt completion.

Table 2: Numeric Type Operations
Operation Example source Invoked by the Evaluation semantics of ... Result
Number::unaryMinus -x Unary - Operator Number
BigInt::unaryMinus BigInt
Number::bitwiseNOT ~x Bitwise NOT Operator ( ~ ) Number
BigInt::bitwiseNOT BigInt
Number::exponentiate x ** y Exponentiation Operator and Math.pow ( base, exponent ) Number
BigInt::exponentiate either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion
Number::multiply x * y Multiplicative Operators Number
BigInt::multiply BigInt
Number::divide x / y Multiplicative Operators Number
BigInt::divide either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion
Number::remainder x % y Multiplicative Operators Number
BigInt::remainder either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion
Number::add x ++
++ x
x + y
Postfix Increment Operator, Prefix Increment Operator, and The Addition Operator ( + ) Number
BigInt::add BigInt
Number::subtract x --
-- x
x - y
Postfix Decrement Operator, Prefix Decrement Operator, and The Subtraction Operator ( - ) Number
BigInt::subtract BigInt
Number::leftShift x << y The Left Shift Operator ( << ) Number
BigInt::leftShift BigInt
Number::signedRightShift x >> y The Signed Right Shift Operator ( >> ) Number
BigInt::signedRightShift BigInt
Number::unsignedRightShift x >>> y The Unsigned Right Shift Operator ( >>> ) Number
BigInt::unsignedRightShift a throw completion
Number::lessThan x < y
x > y
x <= y
x >= y
Relational Operators, via IsLessThan ( x, y, LeftFirst ) Boolean or undefined (for unordered inputs)
BigInt::lessThan Boolean
Number::equal x == y
x != y
x === y
x !== y
Equality Operators, via IsStrictlyEqual ( x, y ) Boolean
BigInt::equal
Number::sameValue Object.is(x, y) Object internal methods, via SameValue ( x, y ), to test exact value equality Boolean
Number::sameValueZero [x].includes(y) Array, Map, and Set methods, via SameValueZero ( x, y ), to test value equality, ignoring the difference between +0๐”ฝ and -0๐”ฝ Boolean
Number::bitwiseAND x & y Binary Bitwise Operators Number
BigInt::bitwiseAND BigInt
Number::bitwiseXOR x ^ y Number
BigInt::bitwiseXOR BigInt
Number::bitwiseOR x | y Number
BigInt::bitwiseOR BigInt
Number::toString String(x) Many expressions and built-in functions, via ToString ( argument ) String
BigInt::toString

Because the numeric types are in general not convertible without loss of precision or truncation, the ECMAScript language provides no implicit conversion among these types. Programmers must explicitly call Number and BigInt functions to convert among types when calling a function which requires another type.

Note

The first and subsequent editions of ECMAScript have provided, for certain operators, implicit numeric conversions that could lose precision or truncate. These legacy implicit conversions are maintained for backward compatibility, but not provided for BigInt in order to minimize opportunity for programmer error, and to leave open the option of generalized value types in a future edition.

6.1.6.1 The Number Type

The Number type has exactly 18,437,736,874,454,810,627 (that is, 264 - 253 + 3) values, representing the double-precision floating point IEEE 754-2019 binary64 values as specified in the IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, except that the 9,007,199,254,740,990 (that is, 253 - 2) distinct โ€œNot-a-Numberโ€ values of the IEEE Standard are represented in ECMAScript as a single special NaN value. (Note that the NaN value is produced by the program expression NaN.) In some implementations, external code might be able to detect a difference between various Not-a-Number values, but such behaviour is implementation-defined; to ECMAScript code, all NaN values are indistinguishable from each other.

Note

The bit pattern that might be observed in an ArrayBuffer (see 25.1) or a SharedArrayBuffer (see 25.2) after a Number value has been stored into it is not necessarily the same as the internal representation of that Number value used by the ECMAScript implementation.

There are two other special values, called positive Infinity and negative Infinity. For brevity, these values are also referred to for expository purposes by the symbols +โˆž๐”ฝ and -โˆž๐”ฝ, respectively. (Note that these two infinite Number values are produced by the program expressions +Infinity (or simply Infinity) and -Infinity.)

The other 18,437,736,874,454,810,624 (that is, 264 - 253) values are called the finite numbers. Half of these are positive numbers and half are negative numbers; for every finite positive Number value there is a corresponding negative value having the same magnitude.

Note that there is both a positive zero and a negative zero. For brevity, these values are also referred to for expository purposes by the symbols +0๐”ฝ and -0๐”ฝ, respectively. (Note that these two different zero Number values are produced by the program expressions +0 (or simply 0) and -0.)

The 18,437,736,874,454,810,622 (that is, 264 - 253 - 2) finite non-zero values are of two kinds:

18,428,729,675,200,069,632 (that is, 264 - 254) of them are normalized, having the form

s ร— m ร— 2e

where s is 1 or -1, m is an integer in the interval from 252 (inclusive) to 253 (exclusive), and e is an integer in the inclusive interval from -1074 to 971.

The remaining 9,007,199,254,740,990 (that is, 253 - 2) values are denormalized, having the form

s ร— m ร— 2e

where s is 1 or -1, m is an integer in the interval from 0 (exclusive) to 252 (exclusive), and e is -1074.

Note that all the positive and negative integers whose magnitude is no greater than 253 are representable in the Number type. The integer 0 has two representations in the Number type: +0๐”ฝ and -0๐”ฝ.

A finite number has an odd significand if it is non-zero and the integer m used to express it (in one of the two forms shown above) is odd. Otherwise, it has an even significand.

In this specification, the phrase โ€œthe Number value for xโ€ where x represents an exact real mathematical quantity (which might even be an irrational number such as ฯ€) means a Number value chosen in the following manner. Consider the set of all finite values of the Number type, with -0๐”ฝ removed and with two additional values added to it that are not representable in the Number type, namely 21024 (which is +1 ร— 253 ร— 2971) and -21024 (which is -1 ร— 253 ร— 2971). Choose the member of this set that is closest in value to x. If two values of the set are equally close, then the one with an even significand is chosen; for this purpose, the two extra values 21024 and -21024 are considered to have even significands. Finally, if 21024 was chosen, replace it with +โˆž๐”ฝ; if -21024 was chosen, replace it with -โˆž๐”ฝ; if +0๐”ฝ was chosen, replace it with -0๐”ฝ if and only if x < 0; any other chosen value is used unchanged. The result is the Number value for x. (This procedure corresponds exactly to the behaviour of the IEEE 754-2019 roundTiesToEven mode.)

The Number value for +โˆž is +โˆž๐”ฝ, and the Number value for -โˆž is -โˆž๐”ฝ.

Some ECMAScript operators deal only with integers in specific ranges such as the inclusive interval from -231 to 231 - 1 or the inclusive interval from 0 to 216 - 1. These operators accept any value of the Number type but first convert each such value to an integer value in the expected range. See the descriptions of the numeric conversion operations in 7.1.

6.1.6.1.1 Number::unaryMinus ( x )

The abstract operation Number::unaryMinus takes argument x (a Number) and returns a Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN, return NaN.
  2. Return the negation of x; that is, compute a Number with the same magnitude but opposite sign.

6.1.6.1.2 Number::bitwiseNOT ( x )

The abstract operation Number::bitwiseNOT takes argument x (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let oldValue be ! ToInt32(x).
  2. Return the bitwise complement of oldValue. The mathematical value of the result is exactly representable as a 32-bit two's complement bit string.

6.1.6.1.3 Number::exponentiate ( base, exponent )

The abstract operation Number::exponentiate takes arguments base (a Number) and exponent (a Number) and returns a Number. It returns an implementation-approximated value representing the result of raising base to the exponent power. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If exponent is NaN, return NaN.
  2. If exponent is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return 1๐”ฝ.
  3. If base is NaN, return NaN.
  4. If base is +โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If exponent > +0๐”ฝ, return +โˆž๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +0๐”ฝ.
  5. If base is -โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If exponent > +0๐”ฝ, then
      1. If exponent is an odd integral Number, return -โˆž๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
    2. Else,
      1. If exponent is an odd integral Number, return -0๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +0๐”ฝ.
  6. If base is +0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If exponent > +0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
  7. If base is -0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If exponent > +0๐”ฝ, then
      1. If exponent is an odd integral Number, return -0๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +0๐”ฝ.
    2. Else,
      1. If exponent is an odd integral Number, return -โˆž๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
  8. Assert: base is finite and is neither +0๐”ฝ nor -0๐”ฝ.
  9. If exponent is +โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If abs(โ„(base)) > 1, return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
    2. If abs(โ„(base)) = 1, return NaN.
    3. If abs(โ„(base)) < 1, return +0๐”ฝ.
  10. If exponent is -โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If abs(โ„(base)) > 1, return +0๐”ฝ.
    2. If abs(โ„(base)) = 1, return NaN.
    3. If abs(โ„(base)) < 1, return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
  11. Assert: exponent is finite and is neither +0๐”ฝ nor -0๐”ฝ.
  12. If base < -0๐”ฝ and exponent is not an integral Number, return NaN.
  13. Return an implementation-approximated Number value representing the result of raising โ„(base) to the โ„(exponent) power.
Note

The result of base ** exponent when base is 1๐”ฝ or -1๐”ฝ and exponent is +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, or when base is 1๐”ฝ and exponent is NaN, differs from IEEE 754-2019. The first edition of ECMAScript specified a result of NaN for this operation, whereas later revisions of IEEE 754 specified 1๐”ฝ. The historical ECMAScript behaviour is preserved for compatibility reasons.

6.1.6.1.4 Number::multiply ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::multiply takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Number. It performs multiplication according to the rules of IEEE 754-2019 binary double-precision arithmetic, producing the product of x and y. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN or y is NaN, return NaN.
  2. If x is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If y is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return NaN.
    2. If y > +0๐”ฝ, return x.
    3. Return -x.
  3. If y is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If x is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return NaN.
    2. If x > +0๐”ฝ, return y.
    3. Return -y.
  4. If x is -0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If y is -0๐”ฝ or y < -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
    2. Else, return -0๐”ฝ.
  5. If y is -0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If x < -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
    2. Else, return -0๐”ฝ.
  6. Return ๐”ฝ(โ„(x) ร— โ„(y)).
Note

Finite-precision multiplication is commutative, but not always associative.

6.1.6.1.5 Number::divide ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::divide takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Number. It performs division according to the rules of IEEE 754-2019 binary double-precision arithmetic, producing the quotient of x and y where x is the dividend and y is the divisor. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN or y is NaN, return NaN.
  2. If x is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If y is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, return NaN.
    2. If y is +0๐”ฝ or y > +0๐”ฝ, return x.
    3. Return -x.
  3. If y is +โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If x is +0๐”ฝ or x > +0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return -0๐”ฝ.
  4. If y is -โˆž๐”ฝ, then
    1. If x is +0๐”ฝ or x > +0๐”ฝ, return -0๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +0๐”ฝ.
  5. If x is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If y is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return NaN.
    2. If y > +0๐”ฝ, return x.
    3. Return -x.
  6. If y is +0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If x > +0๐”ฝ, return +โˆž๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return -โˆž๐”ฝ.
  7. If y is -0๐”ฝ, then
    1. If x > +0๐”ฝ, return -โˆž๐”ฝ. Otherwise, return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
  8. Return ๐”ฝ(โ„(x) / โ„(y)).

6.1.6.1.6 Number::remainder ( n, d )

The abstract operation Number::remainder takes arguments n (a Number) and d (a Number) and returns a Number. It yields the remainder from an implied division of its operands where n is the dividend and d is the divisor. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If n is NaN or d is NaN, return NaN.
  2. If n is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, return NaN.
  3. If d is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, return n.
  4. If d is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return NaN.
  5. If n is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return n.
  6. Assert: n and d are finite and non-zero.
  7. Let quotient be โ„(n) / โ„(d).
  8. Let q be truncate(quotient).
  9. Let r be โ„(n) - (โ„(d) ร— q).
  10. If r = 0 and n < -0๐”ฝ, return -0๐”ฝ.
  11. Return ๐”ฝ(r).
Note 1

In C and C++, the remainder operator accepts only integral operands; in ECMAScript, it also accepts floating-point operands.

Note 2
The result of a floating-point remainder operation as computed by the % operator is not the same as the โ€œremainderโ€ operation defined by IEEE 754-2019. The IEEE 754-2019 โ€œremainderโ€ operation computes the remainder from a rounding division, not a truncating division, and so its behaviour is not analogous to that of the usual integer remainder operator. Instead the ECMAScript language defines % on floating-point operations to behave in a manner analogous to that of the Java integer remainder operator; this may be compared with the C library function fmod.

6.1.6.1.7 Number::add ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::add takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Number. It performs addition according to the rules of IEEE 754-2019 binary double-precision arithmetic, producing the sum of its arguments. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN or y is NaN, return NaN.
  2. If x is +โˆž๐”ฝ and y is -โˆž๐”ฝ, return NaN.
  3. If x is -โˆž๐”ฝ and y is +โˆž๐”ฝ, return NaN.
  4. If x is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, return x.
  5. If y is either +โˆž๐”ฝ or -โˆž๐”ฝ, return y.
  6. Assert: x and y are both finite.
  7. If x is -0๐”ฝ and y is -0๐”ฝ, return -0๐”ฝ.
  8. Return ๐”ฝ(โ„(x) + โ„(y)).
Note

Finite-precision addition is commutative, but not always associative.

6.1.6.1.8 Number::subtract ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::subtract takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Number. It performs subtraction, producing the difference of its operands; x is the minuend and y is the subtrahend. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return Number::add(x, Number::unaryMinus(y)).
Note

It is always the case that x - y produces the same result as x + (-y).

6.1.6.1.9 Number::leftShift ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::leftShift takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let lNum be ! ToInt32(x).
  2. Let rNum be ! ToUint32(y).
  3. Let shiftCount be โ„(rNum) modulo 32.
  4. Return the result of left shifting lNum by shiftCount bits. The mathematical value of the result is exactly representable as a 32-bit two's complement bit string.

6.1.6.1.10 Number::signedRightShift ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::signedRightShift takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let lNum be ! ToInt32(x).
  2. Let rNum be ! ToUint32(y).
  3. Let shiftCount be โ„(rNum) modulo 32.
  4. Return the result of performing a sign-extending right shift of lNum by shiftCount bits. The most significant bit is propagated. The mathematical value of the result is exactly representable as a 32-bit two's complement bit string.

6.1.6.1.11 Number::unsignedRightShift ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::unsignedRightShift takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let lNum be ! ToUint32(x).
  2. Let rNum be ! ToUint32(y).
  3. Let shiftCount be โ„(rNum) modulo 32.
  4. Return the result of performing a zero-filling right shift of lNum by shiftCount bits. Vacated bits are filled with zero. The mathematical value of the result is exactly representable as a 32-bit unsigned bit string.

6.1.6.1.12 Number::lessThan ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::lessThan takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Boolean or undefined. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN, return undefined.
  2. If y is NaN, return undefined.
  3. If x is y, return false.
  4. If x is +0๐”ฝ and y is -0๐”ฝ, return false.
  5. If x is -0๐”ฝ and y is +0๐”ฝ, return false.
  6. If x is +โˆž๐”ฝ, return false.
  7. If y is +โˆž๐”ฝ, return true.
  8. If y is -โˆž๐”ฝ, return false.
  9. If x is -โˆž๐”ฝ, return true.
  10. Assert: x and y are finite.
  11. If โ„(x) < โ„(y), return true. Otherwise, return false.

6.1.6.1.13 Number::equal ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::equal takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN, return false.
  2. If y is NaN, return false.
  3. If x is y, return true.
  4. If x is +0๐”ฝ and y is -0๐”ฝ, return true.
  5. If x is -0๐”ฝ and y is +0๐”ฝ, return true.
  6. Return false.

6.1.6.1.14 Number::sameValue ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::sameValue takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN and y is NaN, return true.
  2. If x is +0๐”ฝ and y is -0๐”ฝ, return false.
  3. If x is -0๐”ฝ and y is +0๐”ฝ, return false.
  4. If x is y, return true.
  5. Return false.

6.1.6.1.15 Number::sameValueZero ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::sameValueZero takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN and y is NaN, return true.
  2. If x is +0๐”ฝ and y is -0๐”ฝ, return true.
  3. If x is -0๐”ฝ and y is +0๐”ฝ, return true.
  4. If x is y, return true.
  5. Return false.

6.1.6.1.16 NumberBitwiseOp ( op, x, y )

The abstract operation NumberBitwiseOp takes arguments op (&, ^, or |), x (a Number), and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let lNum be ! ToInt32(x).
  2. Let rNum be ! ToInt32(y).
  3. Let lBits be the 32-bit two's complement bit string representing โ„(lNum).
  4. Let rBits be the 32-bit two's complement bit string representing โ„(rNum).
  5. If op is &, then
    1. Let result be the result of applying the bitwise AND operation to lBits and rBits.
  6. Else if op is ^, then
    1. Let result be the result of applying the bitwise exclusive OR (XOR) operation to lBits and rBits.
  7. Else,
    1. Assert: op is |.
    2. Let result be the result of applying the bitwise inclusive OR operation to lBits and rBits.
  8. Return the Number value for the integer represented by the 32-bit two's complement bit string result.

6.1.6.1.17 Number::bitwiseAND ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::bitwiseAND takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return NumberBitwiseOp(&, x, y).

6.1.6.1.18 Number::bitwiseXOR ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::bitwiseXOR takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return NumberBitwiseOp(^, x, y).

6.1.6.1.19 Number::bitwiseOR ( x, y )

The abstract operation Number::bitwiseOR takes arguments x (a Number) and y (a Number) and returns an integral Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return NumberBitwiseOp(|, x, y).

6.1.6.1.20 Number::toString ( x, radix )

The abstract operation Number::toString takes arguments x (a Number) and radix (an integer in the inclusive interval from 2 to 36) and returns a String. It represents x as a String using a positional numeral system with radix radix. The digits used in the representation of a number using radix r are taken from the first r code units of "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" in order. The representation of numbers with magnitude greater than or equal to 1๐”ฝ never includes leading zeroes. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is NaN, return "NaN".
  2. If x is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return "0".
  3. If x < -0๐”ฝ, return the string-concatenation of "-" and Number::toString(-x, radix).
  4. If x is +โˆž๐”ฝ, return "Infinity".
  5. Let n, k, and s be integers such that k โ‰ฅ 1, radixk - 1 โ‰ค s < radixk, ๐”ฝ(s ร— radixn - k) is x, and k is as small as possible. Note that k is the number of digits in the representation of s using radix radix, that s is not divisible by radix, and that the least significant digit of s is not necessarily uniquely determined by these criteria.
  6. If radix โ‰  10 or n is in the inclusive interval from -5 to 21, then
    1. If n โ‰ฅ k, then
      1. Return the string-concatenation of:
        • the code units of the k digits of the representation of s using radix radix
        • n - k occurrences of the code unit 0x0030 (DIGIT ZERO)
    2. Else if n > 0, then
      1. Return the string-concatenation of:
        • the code units of the most significant n digits of the representation of s using radix radix
        • the code unit 0x002E (FULL STOP)
        • the code units of the remaining k - n digits of the representation of s using radix radix
    3. Else,
      1. Assert: n โ‰ค 0.
      2. Return the string-concatenation of:
        • the code unit 0x0030 (DIGIT ZERO)
        • the code unit 0x002E (FULL STOP)
        • -n occurrences of the code unit 0x0030 (DIGIT ZERO)
        • the code units of the k digits of the representation of s using radix radix
  7. NOTE: In this case, the input will be represented using scientific E notation, such as 1.2e+3.
  8. Assert: radix is 10.
  9. If n < 0, then
    1. Let exponentSign be the code unit 0x002D (HYPHEN-MINUS).
  10. Else,
    1. Let exponentSign be the code unit 0x002B (PLUS SIGN).
  11. If k = 1, then
    1. Return the string-concatenation of:
      • the code unit of the single digit of s
      • the code unit 0x0065 (LATIN SMALL LETTER E)
      • exponentSign
      • the code units of the decimal representation of abs(n - 1)
  12. Return the string-concatenation of:
    • the code unit of the most significant digit of the decimal representation of s
    • the code unit 0x002E (FULL STOP)
    • the code units of the remaining k - 1 digits of the decimal representation of s
    • the code unit 0x0065 (LATIN SMALL LETTER E)
    • exponentSign
    • the code units of the decimal representation of abs(n - 1)
Note 1

The following observations may be useful as guidelines for implementations, but are not part of the normative requirements of this Standard:

  • If x is any Number value other than -0๐”ฝ, then ToNumber(ToString(x)) is x.
  • The least significant digit of s is not always uniquely determined by the requirements listed in step 5.
Note 2

For implementations that provide more accurate conversions than required by the rules above, it is recommended that the following alternative version of step 5 be used as a guideline:

  1. Let n, k, and s be integers such that k โ‰ฅ 1, radixk - 1 โ‰ค s < radixk, ๐”ฝ(s ร— radixn - k) is x, and k is as small as possible. If there are multiple possibilities for s, choose the value of s for which s ร— radixn - k is closest in value to โ„(x). If there are two such possible values of s, choose the one that is even. Note that k is the number of digits in the representation of s using radix radix and that s is not divisible by radix.
Note 3

Implementers of ECMAScript may find useful the paper and code written by David M. Gay for binary-to-decimal conversion of floating-point numbers:

Gay, David M. Correctly Rounded Binary-Decimal and Decimal-Binary Conversions. Numerical Analysis, Manuscript 90-10. AT&T Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill, New Jersey). 30 November 1990. Available as
https://ampl.com/_archive/first-website/REFS/rounding.pdf. Associated code available as
http://netlib.sandia.gov/fp/dtoa.c and as
http://netlib.sandia.gov/fp/g_fmt.c and may also be found at the various netlib mirror sites.

6.1.6.2 The BigInt Type

The BigInt type represents an integer value. The value may be any size and is not limited to a particular bit-width. Generally, where not otherwise noted, operations are designed to return exact mathematically-based answers. For binary operations, BigInts act as two's complement binary strings, with negative numbers treated as having bits set infinitely to the left.

6.1.6.2.1 BigInt::unaryMinus ( x )

The abstract operation BigInt::unaryMinus takes argument x (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x = 0โ„ค, return 0โ„ค.
  2. Return -x.

6.1.6.2.2 BigInt::bitwiseNOT ( x )

The abstract operation BigInt::bitwiseNOT takes argument x (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It returns the one's complement of x. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return -x - 1โ„ค.

6.1.6.2.3 BigInt::exponentiate ( base, exponent )

The abstract operation BigInt::exponentiate takes arguments base (a BigInt) and exponent (a BigInt) and returns either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If exponent < 0โ„ค, throw a RangeError exception.
  2. If base = 0โ„ค and exponent = 0โ„ค, return 1โ„ค.
  3. Return base raised to the power exponent.

6.1.6.2.4 BigInt::multiply ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::multiply takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return x ร— y.
Note
Even if the result has a much larger bit width than the input, the exact mathematical answer is given.

6.1.6.2.5 BigInt::divide ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::divide takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If y = 0โ„ค, throw a RangeError exception.
  2. Let quotient be โ„(x) / โ„(y).
  3. Return โ„ค(truncate(quotient)).

6.1.6.2.6 BigInt::remainder ( n, d )

The abstract operation BigInt::remainder takes arguments n (a BigInt) and d (a BigInt) and returns either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If d = 0โ„ค, throw a RangeError exception.
  2. If n = 0โ„ค, return 0โ„ค.
  3. Let quotient be โ„(n) / โ„(d).
  4. Let q be โ„ค(truncate(quotient)).
  5. Return n - (d ร— q).
Note
The sign of the result is the sign of the dividend.

6.1.6.2.7 BigInt::add ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::add takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return x + y.

6.1.6.2.8 BigInt::subtract ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::subtract takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return x - y.

6.1.6.2.9 BigInt::leftShift ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::leftShift takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If y < 0โ„ค, then
    1. Return โ„ค(floor(โ„(x) / 2-โ„(y))).
  2. Return x ร— 2โ„คy.
Note
Semantics here should be equivalent to a bitwise shift, treating the BigInt as an infinite length string of binary two's complement digits.

6.1.6.2.10 BigInt::signedRightShift ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::signedRightShift takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return BigInt::leftShift(x, -y).

6.1.6.2.11 BigInt::unsignedRightShift ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::unsignedRightShift takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Throw a TypeError exception.

6.1.6.2.12 BigInt::lessThan ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::lessThan takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If โ„(x) < โ„(y), return true; otherwise return false.

6.1.6.2.13 BigInt::equal ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::equal takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If โ„(x) = โ„(y), return true; otherwise return false.

6.1.6.2.14 BinaryAnd ( x, y )

The abstract operation BinaryAnd takes arguments x (0 or 1) and y (0 or 1) and returns 0 or 1. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x = 1 and y = 1, return 1.
  2. Else, return 0.

6.1.6.2.15 BinaryOr ( x, y )

The abstract operation BinaryOr takes arguments x (0 or 1) and y (0 or 1) and returns 0 or 1. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x = 1 or y = 1, return 1.
  2. Else, return 0.

6.1.6.2.16 BinaryXor ( x, y )

The abstract operation BinaryXor takes arguments x (0 or 1) and y (0 or 1) and returns 0 or 1. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x = 1 and y = 0, return 1.
  2. Else if x = 0 and y = 1, return 1.
  3. Else, return 0.

6.1.6.2.17 BigIntBitwiseOp ( op, x, y )

The abstract operation BigIntBitwiseOp takes arguments op (&, ^, or |), x (a BigInt), and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Set x to โ„(x).
  2. Set y to โ„(y).
  3. Let result be 0.
  4. Let shift be 0.
  5. Repeat, until (x = 0 or x = -1) and (y = 0 or y = -1),
    1. Let xDigit be x modulo 2.
    2. Let yDigit be y modulo 2.
    3. If op is &, then
      1. Set result to result + 2shift ร— BinaryAnd(xDigit, yDigit).
    4. Else if op is |, then
      1. Set result to result + 2shift ร— BinaryOr(xDigit, yDigit).
    5. Else,
      1. Assert: op is ^.
      2. Set result to result + 2shift ร— BinaryXor(xDigit, yDigit).
    6. Set shift to shift + 1.
    7. Set x to (x - xDigit) / 2.
    8. Set y to (y - yDigit) / 2.
  6. If op is &, then
    1. Let tmp be BinaryAnd(x modulo 2, y modulo 2).
  7. Else if op is |, then
    1. Let tmp be BinaryOr(x modulo 2, y modulo 2).
  8. Else,
    1. Assert: op is ^.
    2. Let tmp be BinaryXor(x modulo 2, y modulo 2).
  9. If tmp โ‰  0, then
    1. Set result to result - 2shift.
    2. NOTE: This extends the sign.
  10. Return the BigInt value for result.

6.1.6.2.18 BigInt::bitwiseAND ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::bitwiseAND takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return BigIntBitwiseOp(&, x, y).

6.1.6.2.19 BigInt::bitwiseXOR ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::bitwiseXOR takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return BigIntBitwiseOp(^, x, y).

6.1.6.2.20 BigInt::bitwiseOR ( x, y )

The abstract operation BigInt::bitwiseOR takes arguments x (a BigInt) and y (a BigInt) and returns a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return BigIntBitwiseOp(|, x, y).

6.1.6.2.21 BigInt::toString ( x, radix )

The abstract operation BigInt::toString takes arguments x (a BigInt) and radix (an integer in the inclusive interval from 2 to 36) and returns a String. It represents x as a String using a positional numeral system with radix radix. The digits used in the representation of a BigInt using radix r are taken from the first r code units of "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" in order. The representation of BigInts other than 0โ„ค never includes leading zeroes. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x < 0โ„ค, return the string-concatenation of "-" and BigInt::toString(-x, radix).
  2. Return the String value consisting of the representation of x using radix radix.

6.1.7 The Object Type

Each instance of the Object type, also referred to simply as โ€œan Objectโ€, represents a collection of properties. Each property is either a data property, or an accessor property:

  • A data property associates a key value with an ECMAScript language value and a set of Boolean attributes.
  • An accessor property associates a key value with one or two accessor functions, and a set of Boolean attributes. The accessor functions are used to store or retrieve an ECMAScript language value that is associated with the property.

The properties of an object are uniquely identified using property keys. A property key is either a String or a Symbol. All Strings and Symbols, including the empty String, are valid as property keys. A property name is a property key that is a String.

An integer index is a property name n such that CanonicalNumericIndexString(n) returns an integral Number in the inclusive interval from +0๐”ฝ to ๐”ฝ(253 - 1). An array index is an integer index n such that CanonicalNumericIndexString(n) returns an integral Number in the inclusive interval from +0๐”ฝ to ๐”ฝ(232 - 2).

Note

Every non-negative safe integer has a corresponding integer index. Every 32-bit unsigned integer except 232 - 1 has a corresponding array index. "-0" is neither an integer index nor an array index.

Property keys are used to access properties and their values. There are two kinds of access for properties: get and set, corresponding to value retrieval and assignment, respectively. The properties accessible via get and set access includes both own properties that are a direct part of an object and inherited properties which are provided by another associated object via a property inheritance relationship. Inherited properties may be either own or inherited properties of the associated object. Each own property of an object must each have a key value that is distinct from the key values of the other own properties of that object.

All objects are logically collections of properties, but there are multiple forms of objects that differ in their semantics for accessing and manipulating their properties. Please see 6.1.7.2 for definitions of the multiple forms of objects.

In addition, some objects are callable; these are referred to as functions or function objects and are described further below. All functions in ECMAScript are members of the Object type.

6.1.7.1 Property Attributes

Attributes are used in this specification to define and explain the state of Object properties as described in Table 3. Unless specified explicitly, the initial value of each attribute is its Default Value.

Table 3: Attributes of an Object property
Attribute Name Types of property for which it is present Value Domain Default Value Description
[[Value]] data property an ECMAScript language value undefined The value retrieved by a get access of the property.
[[Writable]] data property a Boolean false If false, attempts by ECMAScript code to change the property's [[Value]] attribute using [[Set]] will not succeed.
[[Get]] accessor property an Object or undefined undefined If the value is an Object it must be a function object. The function's [[Call]] internal method (Table 5) is called with an empty arguments list to retrieve the property value each time a get access of the property is performed.
[[Set]] accessor property an Object or undefined undefined If the value is an Object it must be a function object. The function's [[Call]] internal method (Table 5) is called with an arguments list containing the assigned value as its sole argument each time a set access of the property is performed. The effect of a property's [[Set]] internal method may, but is not required to, have an effect on the value returned by subsequent calls to the property's [[Get]] internal method.
[[Enumerable]] data property or accessor property a Boolean false If true, the property will be enumerated by a for-in enumeration (see 14.7.5). Otherwise, the property is said to be non-enumerable.
[[Configurable]] data property or accessor property a Boolean false If false, attempts to delete the property, change it from a data property to an accessor property or from an accessor property to a data property, or make any changes to its attributes (other than replacing an existing [[Value]] or setting [[Writable]] to false) will fail.

6.1.7.2 Object Internal Methods and Internal Slots

The actual semantics of objects, in ECMAScript, are specified via algorithms called internal methods. Each object in an ECMAScript engine is associated with a set of internal methods that defines its runtime behaviour. These internal methods are not part of the ECMAScript language. They are defined by this specification purely for expository purposes. However, each object within an implementation of ECMAScript must behave as specified by the internal methods associated with it. The exact manner in which this is accomplished is determined by the implementation.

Internal method names are polymorphic. This means that different object values may perform different algorithms when a common internal method name is invoked upon them. That actual object upon which an internal method is invoked is the โ€œtargetโ€ of the invocation. If, at runtime, the implementation of an algorithm attempts to use an internal method of an object that the object does not support, a TypeError exception is thrown.

Internal slots correspond to internal state that is associated with objects and used by various ECMAScript specification algorithms. Internal slots are not object properties and they are not inherited. Depending upon the specific internal slot specification, such state may consist of values of any ECMAScript language type or of specific ECMAScript specification type values. Unless explicitly specified otherwise, internal slots are allocated as part of the process of creating an object and may not be dynamically added to an object. Unless specified otherwise, the initial value of an internal slot is the value undefined. Various algorithms within this specification create objects that have internal slots. However, the ECMAScript language provides no direct way to associate internal slots with an object.

All objects have an internal slot named [[PrivateElements]], which is a List of PrivateElements. This List represents the values of the private fields, methods, and accessors for the object. Initially, it is an empty List.

Internal methods and internal slots are identified within this specification using names enclosed in double square brackets [[ ]].

Table 4 summarizes the essential internal methods used by this specification that are applicable to all objects created or manipulated by ECMAScript code. Every object must have algorithms for all of the essential internal methods. However, all objects do not necessarily use the same algorithms for those methods.

An ordinary object is an object that satisfies all of the following criteria:

  • For the internal methods listed in Table 4, the object uses those defined in 10.1.
  • If the object has a [[Call]] internal method, it uses either the one defined in 10.2.1 or the one defined in 10.3.1.
  • If the object has a [[Construct]] internal method, it uses either the one defined in 10.2.2 or the one defined in 10.3.2.

An exotic object is an object that is not an ordinary object.

This specification recognizes different kinds of exotic objects by those objects' internal methods. An object that is behaviourally equivalent to a particular kind of exotic object (such as an Array exotic object or a bound function exotic object), but does not have the same collection of internal methods specified for that kind, is not recognized as that kind of exotic object.

The โ€œSignatureโ€ column of Table 4 and other similar tables describes the invocation pattern for each internal method. The invocation pattern always includes a parenthesized list of descriptive parameter names. If a parameter name is the same as an ECMAScript type name then the name describes the required type of the parameter value. If an internal method explicitly returns a value, its parameter list is followed by the symbol โ€œโ†’โ€ and the type name of the returned value. The type names used in signatures refer to the types defined in clause 6 augmented by the following additional names. โ€œanyโ€ means the value may be any ECMAScript language type.

In addition to its parameters, an internal method always has access to the object that is the target of the method invocation.

An internal method implicitly returns a Completion Record, either a normal completion that wraps a value of the return type shown in its invocation pattern, or a throw completion.

Table 4: Essential Internal Methods
Internal Method Signature Description
[[GetPrototypeOf]] ( ) โ†’ Object | Null Determine the object that provides inherited properties for this object. A null value indicates that there are no inherited properties.
[[SetPrototypeOf]] (Object | Null) โ†’ Boolean Associate this object with another object that provides inherited properties. Passing null indicates that there are no inherited properties. Returns true indicating that the operation was completed successfully or false indicating that the operation was not successful.
[[IsExtensible]] ( ) โ†’ Boolean Determine whether it is permitted to add additional properties to this object.
[[PreventExtensions]] ( ) โ†’ Boolean Control whether new properties may be added to this object. Returns true if the operation was successful or false if the operation was unsuccessful.
[[GetOwnProperty]] (propertyKey) โ†’ Undefined | Property Descriptor Return a Property Descriptor for the own property of this object whose key is propertyKey, or undefined if no such property exists.
[[DefineOwnProperty]] (propertyKey, PropertyDescriptor) โ†’ Boolean Create or alter the own property, whose key is propertyKey, to have the state described by PropertyDescriptor. Return true if that property was successfully created/updated or false if the property could not be created or updated.
[[HasProperty]] (propertyKey) โ†’ Boolean Return a Boolean value indicating whether this object already has either an own or inherited property whose key is propertyKey.
[[Get]] (propertyKey, Receiver) โ†’ any Return the value of the property whose key is propertyKey from this object. If any ECMAScript code must be executed to retrieve the property value, Receiver is used as the this value when evaluating the code.
[[Set]] (propertyKey, value, Receiver) โ†’ Boolean Set the value of the property whose key is propertyKey to value. If any ECMAScript code must be executed to set the property value, Receiver is used as the this value when evaluating the code. Returns true if the property value was set or false if it could not be set.
[[Delete]] (propertyKey) โ†’ Boolean Remove the own property whose key is propertyKey from this object. Return false if the property was not deleted and is still present. Return true if the property was deleted or is not present.
[[OwnPropertyKeys]] ( ) โ†’ List of property keys Return a List whose elements are all of the own property keys for the object.

Table 5 summarizes additional essential internal methods that are supported by objects that may be called as functions. A function object is an object that supports the [[Call]] internal method. A constructor is an object that supports the [[Construct]] internal method. Every object that supports [[Construct]] must support [[Call]]; that is, every constructor must be a function object. Therefore, a constructor may also be referred to as a constructor function or constructor function object.

Table 5: Additional Essential Internal Methods of Function Objects
Internal Method Signature Description
[[Call]] (any, a List of any) โ†’ any Executes code associated with this object. Invoked via a function call expression. The arguments to the internal method are a this value and a List whose elements are the arguments passed to the function by a call expression. Objects that implement this internal method are callable.
[[Construct]] (a List of any, Object) โ†’ Object Creates an object. Invoked via the new operator or a super call. The first argument to the internal method is a List whose elements are the arguments of the constructor invocation or the super call. The second argument is the object to which the new operator was initially applied. Objects that implement this internal method are called constructors. A function object is not necessarily a constructor and such non-constructor function objects do not have a [[Construct]] internal method.

The semantics of the essential internal methods for ordinary objects and standard exotic objects are specified in clause 10. If any specified use of an internal method of an exotic object is not supported by an implementation, that usage must throw a TypeError exception when attempted.

6.1.7.3 Invariants of the Essential Internal Methods

The Internal Methods of Objects of an ECMAScript engine must conform to the list of invariants specified below. Ordinary ECMAScript Objects as well as all standard exotic objects in this specification maintain these invariants. ECMAScript Proxy objects maintain these invariants by means of runtime checks on the result of traps invoked on the [[ProxyHandler]] object.

Any implementation provided exotic objects must also maintain these invariants for those objects. Violation of these invariants may cause ECMAScript code to have unpredictable behaviour and create security issues. However, violation of these invariants must never compromise the memory safety of an implementation.

An implementation must not allow these invariants to be circumvented in any manner such as by providing alternative interfaces that implement the functionality of the essential internal methods without enforcing their invariants.

Definitions:

  • The target of an internal method is the object upon which the internal method is called.
  • A target is non-extensible if it has been observed to return false from its [[IsExtensible]] internal method, or true from its [[PreventExtensions]] internal method.
  • A non-existent property is a property that does not exist as an own property on a non-extensible target.
  • All references to SameValue are according to the definition of the SameValue algorithm.

Return value:

The value returned by any internal method must be a Completion Record with either:

  • [[Type]] = normal, [[Target]] = empty, and [[Value]] = a value of the "normal return type" shown below for that internal method, or
  • [[Type]] = throw, [[Target]] = empty, and [[Value]] = any ECMAScript language value.
Note 1

An internal method must not return a continue completion, a break completion, or a return completion.

[[GetPrototypeOf]] ( )

  • The normal return type is either Object or Null.
  • If target is non-extensible, and [[GetPrototypeOf]] returns a value V, then any future calls to [[GetPrototypeOf]] should return the SameValue as V.
Note 2

An object's prototype chain should have finite length (that is, starting from any object, recursively applying the [[GetPrototypeOf]] internal method to its result should eventually lead to the value null). However, this requirement is not enforceable as an object level invariant if the prototype chain includes any exotic objects that do not use the ordinary object definition of [[GetPrototypeOf]]. Such a circular prototype chain may result in infinite loops when accessing object properties.

[[SetPrototypeOf]] ( V )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • If target is non-extensible, [[SetPrototypeOf]] must return false, unless V is the SameValue as the target's observed [[GetPrototypeOf]] value.

[[IsExtensible]] ( )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • If [[IsExtensible]] returns false, all future calls to [[IsExtensible]] on the target must return false.

[[PreventExtensions]] ( )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • If [[PreventExtensions]] returns true, all future calls to [[IsExtensible]] on the target must return false and the target is now considered non-extensible.

[[GetOwnProperty]] ( P )

  • The normal return type is either Property Descriptor or Undefined.
  • If the return value is a Property Descriptor, it must be a fully populated Property Descriptor.
  • If P is described as a non-configurable, non-writable own data property, all future calls to [[GetOwnProperty]] ( P ) must return Property Descriptor whose [[Value]] is SameValue as P's [[Value]] attribute.
  • If P's attributes other than [[Writable]] and [[Value]] may change over time, or if the property might be deleted, then P's [[Configurable]] attribute must be true.
  • If the [[Writable]] attribute may change from false to true, then the [[Configurable]] attribute must be true.
  • If the target is non-extensible and P is non-existent, then all future calls to [[GetOwnProperty]] (P) on the target must describe P as non-existent (i.e. [[GetOwnProperty]] (P) must return undefined).
Note 3

As a consequence of the third invariant, if a property is described as a data property and it may return different values over time, then either or both of the [[Writable]] and [[Configurable]] attributes must be true even if no mechanism to change the value is exposed via the other essential internal methods.

[[DefineOwnProperty]] ( P, Desc )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • [[DefineOwnProperty]] must return false if P has previously been observed as a non-configurable own property of the target, unless either:
    1. P is a writable data property. A non-configurable writable data property can be changed into a non-configurable non-writable data property.
    2. All attributes of Desc are the SameValue as P's attributes.
  • [[DefineOwnProperty]] (P, Desc) must return false if target is non-extensible and P is a non-existent own property. That is, a non-extensible target object cannot be extended with new properties.

[[HasProperty]] ( P )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • If P was previously observed as a non-configurable own data or accessor property of the target, [[HasProperty]] must return true.

[[Get]] ( P, Receiver )

  • The normal return type is any ECMAScript language type.
  • If P was previously observed as a non-configurable, non-writable own data property of the target with value V, then [[Get]] must return the SameValue as V.
  • If P was previously observed as a non-configurable own accessor property of the target whose [[Get]] attribute is undefined, the [[Get]] operation must return undefined.

[[Set]] ( P, V, Receiver )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • If P was previously observed as a non-configurable, non-writable own data property of the target, then [[Set]] must return false unless V is the SameValue as P's [[Value]] attribute.
  • If P was previously observed as a non-configurable own accessor property of the target whose [[Set]] attribute is undefined, the [[Set]] operation must return false.

[[Delete]] ( P )

  • The normal return type is Boolean.
  • If P was previously observed as a non-configurable own data or accessor property of the target, [[Delete]] must return false.

[[OwnPropertyKeys]] ( )

  • The normal return type is List.
  • The returned List must not contain any duplicate entries.
  • Each element of the returned List must be a property key.
  • The returned List must contain at least the keys of all non-configurable own properties that have previously been observed.
  • If the target is non-extensible, the returned List must contain only the keys of all own properties of the target that are observable using [[GetOwnProperty]].

[[Call]] ( )

[[Construct]] ( )

  • The normal return type is Object.
  • The target must also have a [[Call]] internal method.

6.1.7.4 Well-Known Intrinsic Objects

Well-known intrinsics are built-in objects that are explicitly referenced by the algorithms of this specification and which usually have realm-specific identities. Unless otherwise specified each intrinsic object actually corresponds to a set of similar objects, one per realm.

Within this specification a reference such as %name% means the intrinsic object, associated with the current realm, corresponding to the name. A reference such as %name.a.b% means, as if the "b" property of the value of the "a" property of the intrinsic object %name% was accessed prior to any ECMAScript code being evaluated. Determination of the current realm and its intrinsics is described in 9.4. The well-known intrinsics are listed in Table 6.

Table 6: Well-Known Intrinsic Objects
Intrinsic Name Global Name ECMAScript Language Association
%AggregateError% AggregateError The AggregateError constructor (20.5.7.1)
%Array% Array The Array constructor (23.1.1)
%ArrayBuffer% ArrayBuffer The ArrayBuffer constructor (25.1.4)
%ArrayIteratorPrototype% The prototype of Array Iterator objects (23.1.5)
%AsyncFromSyncIteratorPrototype% The prototype of async-from-sync iterator objects (27.1.6)
%AsyncFunction% The constructor of async function objects (27.7.1)
%AsyncGeneratorFunction% The constructor of async generator function objects (27.4.1)
%AsyncGeneratorPrototype% The prototype of async generator objects (27.6)
%AsyncIteratorPrototype% An object that all standard built-in async iterator objects indirectly inherit from
%Atomics% Atomics The Atomics object (25.4)
%BigInt% BigInt The BigInt constructor (21.2.1)
%BigInt64Array% BigInt64Array The BigInt64Array constructor (23.2)
%BigUint64Array% BigUint64Array The BigUint64Array constructor (23.2)
%Boolean% Boolean The Boolean constructor (20.3.1)
%DataView% DataView The DataView constructor (25.3.2)
%Date% Date The Date constructor (21.4.2)
%decodeURI% decodeURI The decodeURI function (19.2.6.1)
%decodeURIComponent% decodeURIComponent The decodeURIComponent function (19.2.6.2)
%encodeURI% encodeURI The encodeURI function (19.2.6.3)
%encodeURIComponent% encodeURIComponent The encodeURIComponent function (19.2.6.4)
%Error% Error The Error constructor (20.5.1)
%eval% eval The eval function (19.2.1)
%EvalError% EvalError The EvalError constructor (20.5.5.1)
%FinalizationRegistry% FinalizationRegistry The FinalizationRegistry constructor (26.2.1)
%Float32Array% Float32Array The Float32Array constructor (23.2)
%Float64Array% Float64Array The Float64Array constructor (23.2)
%ForInIteratorPrototype% The prototype of For-In iterator objects (14.7.5.10)
%Function% Function The Function constructor (20.2.1)
%GeneratorFunction% The constructor of generator function objects (27.3.1)
%GeneratorPrototype% The prototype of generator objects (27.5)
%Int8Array% Int8Array The Int8Array constructor (23.2)
%Int16Array% Int16Array The Int16Array constructor (23.2)
%Int32Array% Int32Array The Int32Array constructor (23.2)
%isFinite% isFinite The isFinite function (19.2.2)
%isNaN% isNaN The isNaN function (19.2.3)
%Iterator% Iterator The Iterator constructor (27.1.3.1)
%IteratorHelperPrototype% The prototype of Iterator Helper objects (27.1.2.1)
%JSON% JSON The JSON object (25.5)
%Map% Map The Map constructor (24.1.1)
%MapIteratorPrototype% The prototype of Map Iterator objects (24.1.5)
%Math% Math The Math object (21.3)
%Number% Number The Number constructor (21.1.1)
%Object% Object The Object constructor (20.1.1)
%parseFloat% parseFloat The parseFloat function (19.2.4)
%parseInt% parseInt The parseInt function (19.2.5)
%Promise% Promise The Promise constructor (27.2.3)
%Proxy% Proxy The Proxy constructor (28.2.1)
%RangeError% RangeError The RangeError constructor (20.5.5.2)
%ReferenceError% ReferenceError The ReferenceError constructor (20.5.5.3)
%Reflect% Reflect The Reflect object (28.1)
%RegExp% RegExp The RegExp constructor (22.2.4)
%RegExpStringIteratorPrototype% The prototype of RegExp String Iterator objects (22.2.9)
%Set% Set The Set constructor (24.2.2)
%SetIteratorPrototype% The prototype of Set Iterator objects (24.2.6)
%SharedArrayBuffer% SharedArrayBuffer The SharedArrayBuffer constructor (25.2.3)
%String% String The String constructor (22.1.1)
%StringIteratorPrototype% The prototype of String Iterator objects (22.1.5)
%Symbol% Symbol The Symbol constructor (20.4.1)
%SyntaxError% SyntaxError The SyntaxError constructor (20.5.5.4)
%ThrowTypeError% A function object that unconditionally throws a new instance of %TypeError%
%TypedArray% The super class of all typed Array constructors (23.2.1)
%TypeError% TypeError The TypeError constructor (20.5.5.5)
%Uint8Array% Uint8Array The Uint8Array constructor (23.2)
%Uint8ClampedArray% Uint8ClampedArray The Uint8ClampedArray constructor (23.2)
%Uint16Array% Uint16Array The Uint16Array constructor (23.2)
%Uint32Array% Uint32Array The Uint32Array constructor (23.2)
%URIError% URIError The URIError constructor (20.5.5.6)
%WeakMap% WeakMap The WeakMap constructor (24.3.1)
%WeakRef% WeakRef The WeakRef constructor (26.1.1)
%WeakSet% WeakSet The WeakSet constructor (24.4.1)
%WrapForValidIteratorPrototype% The prototype of wrapped iterator objects returned by Iterator.from (27.1.3.2.1.1)
Note

Additional entries in Table 96.

6.2 ECMAScript Specification Types

A specification type corresponds to meta-values that are used within algorithms to describe the semantics of ECMAScript language constructs and ECMAScript language types. The specification types include Reference Record, List, Completion Record, Property Descriptor, Environment Record, Abstract Closure, and Data Block. Specification type values are specification artefacts that do not necessarily correspond to any specific entity within an ECMAScript implementation. Specification type values may be used to describe intermediate results of ECMAScript expression evaluation but such values cannot be stored as properties of objects or values of ECMAScript language variables.

6.2.1 The Enum Specification Type

Enums are values which are internal to the specification and not directly observable from ECMAScript code. Enums are denoted using a sans-serif typeface. For instance, a Completion Record's [[Type]] field takes on values like normal, return, or throw. Enums have no characteristics other than their name. The name of an enum serves no purpose other than to distinguish it from other enums, and implies nothing about its usage or meaning in context.

6.2.2 The List and Record Specification Types

The List type is used to explain the evaluation of argument lists (see 13.3.8) in new expressions, in function calls, and in other algorithms where a simple ordered list of values is needed. Values of the List type are simply ordered sequences of list elements containing the individual values. These sequences may be of any length. The elements of a list may be randomly accessed using 0-origin indices. For notational convenience an array-like syntax can be used to access List elements. For example, arguments[2] is shorthand for saying the 3rd element of the List arguments.

When an algorithm iterates over the elements of a List without specifying an order, the order used is the order of the elements in the List.

For notational convenience within this specification, a literal syntax can be used to express a new List value. For example, ยซ 1, 2 ยป defines a List value that has two elements each of which is initialized to a specific value. A new empty List can be expressed as ยซ ยป.

In this specification, the phrase "the list-concatenation of A, B, ..." (where each argument is a possibly empty List) denotes a new List value whose elements are the concatenation of the elements (in order) of each of the arguments (in order).

As applied to a List of Strings, the phrase "sorted according to lexicographic code unit order" means sorting by the numeric value of each code unit up to the length of the shorter string, and sorting the shorter string before the longer string if all are equal, as described in the abstract operation IsLessThan.

The Record type is used to describe data aggregations within the algorithms of this specification. A Record type value consists of one or more named fields. The value of each field is an ECMAScript language value or specification value. Field names are always enclosed in double brackets, for example [[Value]].

For notational convenience within this specification, an object literal-like syntax can be used to express a Record value. For example, { [[Field1]]: 42, [[Field2]]: false, [[Field3]]: empty } defines a Record value that has three fields, each of which is initialized to a specific value. Field name order is not significant. Any fields that are not explicitly listed are considered to be absent.

In specification text and algorithms, dot notation may be used to refer to a specific field of a Record value. For example, if R is the record shown in the previous paragraph then R.[[Field2]] is shorthand for โ€œthe field of R named [[Field2]]โ€.

Schema for commonly used Record field combinations may be named, and that name may be used as a prefix to a literal Record value to identify the specific kind of aggregations that is being described. For example: PropertyDescriptor { [[Value]]: 42, [[Writable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true }.

6.2.3 The Set and Relation Specification Types

The Set type is used to explain a collection of unordered elements for use in the memory model. It is distinct from the ECMAScript collection type of the same name. To disambiguate, instances of the ECMAScript collection are consistently referred to as "Set objects" within this specification. Values of the Set type are simple collections of elements, where no element appears more than once. Elements may be added to and removed from Sets. Sets may be unioned, intersected, or subtracted from each other.

The Relation type is used to explain constraints on Sets. Values of the Relation type are Sets of ordered pairs of values from its value domain. For example, a Relation on events is a set of ordered pairs of events. For a Relation R and two values a and b in the value domain of R, a R b is shorthand for saying the ordered pair (a, b) is a member of R. A Relation is the least Relation with respect to some conditions when it is the smallest Relation that satisfies those conditions.

A strict partial order is a Relation value R that satisfies the following.

  • For all a, b, and c in R's domain:

    • It is not the case that a R a, and
    • If a R b and b R c, then a R c.
Note 1

The two properties above are called irreflexivity and transitivity, respectively.

A strict total order is a Relation value R that satisfies the following.

  • For all a, b, and c in R's domain:

    • a is b or a R b or b R a, and
    • It is not the case that a R a, and
    • If a R b and b R c, then a R c.
Note 2

The three properties above are called totality, irreflexivity, and transitivity, respectively.

6.2.4 The Completion Record Specification Type

The Completion Record specification type is used to explain the runtime propagation of values and control flow such as the behaviour of statements (break, continue, return and throw) that perform nonlocal transfers of control.

Completion Records have the fields defined in Table 7.

Table 7: Completion Record Fields
Field Name Value Meaning
[[Type]] normal, break, continue, return, or throw The type of completion that occurred.
[[Value]] any value except a Completion Record The value that was produced.
[[Target]] a String or empty The target label for directed control transfers.

The following shorthand terms are sometimes used to refer to Completion Records.

  • normal completion refers to any Completion Record with a [[Type]] value of normal.
  • break completion refers to any Completion Record with a [[Type]] value of break.
  • continue completion refers to any Completion Record with a [[Type]] value of continue.
  • return completion refers to any Completion Record with a [[Type]] value of return.
  • throw completion refers to any Completion Record with a [[Type]] value of throw.
  • abrupt completion refers to any Completion Record with a [[Type]] value other than normal.
  • a normal completion containing some type of value refers to a normal completion that has a value of that type in its [[Value]] field.

Callable objects that are defined in this specification only return a normal completion or a throw completion. Returning any other kind of Completion Record is considered an editorial error.

Implementation-defined callable objects must return either a normal completion or a throw completion.

6.2.4.1 NormalCompletion ( value )

The abstract operation NormalCompletion takes argument value (any value except a Completion Record) and returns a normal completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return Completion Record { [[Type]]: normal, [[Value]]: value, [[Target]]: empty }.

6.2.4.2 ThrowCompletion ( value )

The abstract operation ThrowCompletion takes argument value (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return Completion Record { [[Type]]: throw, [[Value]]: value, [[Target]]: empty }.

6.2.4.3 ReturnCompletion ( value )

The abstract operation ReturnCompletion takes argument value (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a return completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return Completion Record { [[Type]]: return, [[Value]]: value, [[Target]]: empty }.

6.2.4.4 UpdateEmpty ( completionRecord, value )

The abstract operation UpdateEmpty takes arguments completionRecord (a Completion Record) and value (any value except a Completion Record) and returns a Completion Record. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Assert: If completionRecord is either a return completion or a throw completion, then completionRecord.[[Value]] is not empty.
  2. If completionRecord.[[Value]] is not empty, return ? completionRecord.
  3. Return Completion Record { [[Type]]: completionRecord.[[Type]], [[Value]]: value, [[Target]]: completionRecord.[[Target]] }.

6.2.5 The Reference Record Specification Type

The Reference Record type is used to explain the behaviour of such operators as delete, typeof, the assignment operators, the super keyword and other language features. For example, the left-hand operand of an assignment is expected to produce a Reference Record.

A Reference Record is a resolved name or (possibly not-yet-resolved) property binding; its fields are defined by Table 8.

Table 8: Reference Record Fields
Field Name Value Meaning
[[Base]] an ECMAScript language value, an Environment Record, or unresolvable The value or Environment Record which holds the binding. A [[Base]] of unresolvable indicates that the binding could not be resolved.
[[ReferencedName]] an ECMAScript language value or a Private Name The name of the binding. Always a String if [[Base]] value is an Environment Record. Otherwise, may be an ECMAScript language value other than a String or a Symbol until ToPropertyKey is performed.
[[Strict]] a Boolean true if the Reference Record originated in strict mode code, false otherwise.
[[ThisValue]] an ECMAScript language value or empty If not empty, the Reference Record represents a property binding that was expressed using the super keyword; it is called a Super Reference Record and its [[Base]] value will never be an Environment Record. In that case, the [[ThisValue]] field holds the this value at the time the Reference Record was created.

The following abstract operations are used in this specification to operate upon Reference Records:

6.2.5.1 IsPropertyReference ( V )

The abstract operation IsPropertyReference takes argument V (a Reference Record) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If V.[[Base]] is unresolvable, return false.
  2. If V.[[Base]] is an Environment Record, return false; otherwise return true.

6.2.5.2 IsUnresolvableReference ( V )

The abstract operation IsUnresolvableReference takes argument V (a Reference Record) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If V.[[Base]] is unresolvable, return true; otherwise return false.

6.2.5.3 IsSuperReference ( V )

The abstract operation IsSuperReference takes argument V (a Reference Record) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If V.[[ThisValue]] is not empty, return true; otherwise return false.

6.2.5.4 IsPrivateReference ( V )

The abstract operation IsPrivateReference takes argument V (a Reference Record) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If V.[[ReferencedName]] is a Private Name, return true; otherwise return false.

6.2.5.5 GetValue ( V )

The abstract operation GetValue takes argument V (a Reference Record or an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an ECMAScript language value or an abrupt completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If V is not a Reference Record, return V.
  2. If IsUnresolvableReference(V) is true, throw a ReferenceError exception.
  3. If IsPropertyReference(V) is true, then
    1. Let baseObj be ? ToObject(V.[[Base]]).
    2. If IsPrivateReference(V) is true, then
      1. Return ? PrivateGet(baseObj, V.[[ReferencedName]]).
    3. If V.[[ReferencedName]] is not a property key, then
      1. Set V.[[ReferencedName]] to ? ToPropertyKey(V.[[ReferencedName]]).
    4. Return ? baseObj.[[Get]](V.[[ReferencedName]], GetThisValue(V)).
  4. Else,
    1. Let base be V.[[Base]].
    2. Assert: base is an Environment Record.
    3. Return ? base.GetBindingValue(V.[[ReferencedName]], V.[[Strict]]) (see 9.1).
Note

The object that may be created in step 3.a is not accessible outside of the above abstract operation and the ordinary object [[Get]] internal method. An implementation might choose to avoid the actual creation of the object.

6.2.5.6 PutValue ( V, W )

The abstract operation PutValue takes arguments V (a Reference Record or an ECMAScript language value) and W (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing unused or an abrupt completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If V is not a Reference Record, throw a ReferenceError exception.
  2. If IsUnresolvableReference(V) is true, then
    1. If V.[[Strict]] is true, throw a ReferenceError exception.
    2. Let globalObj be GetGlobalObject().
    3. Perform ? Set(globalObj, V.[[ReferencedName]], W, false).
    4. Return unused.
  3. If IsPropertyReference(V) is true, then
    1. Let baseObj be ? ToObject(V.[[Base]]).
    2. If IsPrivateReference(V) is true, then
      1. Return ? PrivateSet(baseObj, V.[[ReferencedName]], W).
    3. If V.[[ReferencedName]] is not a property key, then
      1. Set V.[[ReferencedName]] to ? ToPropertyKey(V.[[ReferencedName]]).
    4. Let succeeded be ? baseObj.[[Set]](V.[[ReferencedName]], W, GetThisValue(V)).
    5. If succeeded is false and V.[[Strict]] is true, throw a TypeError exception.
    6. Return unused.
  4. Else,
    1. Let base be V.[[Base]].
    2. Assert: base is an Environment Record.
    3. Return ? base.SetMutableBinding(V.[[ReferencedName]], W, V.[[Strict]]) (see 9.1).
Note

The object that may be created in step 3.a is not accessible outside of the above abstract operation and the ordinary object [[Set]] internal method. An implementation might choose to avoid the actual creation of that object.

6.2.5.7 GetThisValue ( V )

The abstract operation GetThisValue takes argument V (a Reference Record) and returns an ECMAScript language value. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Assert: IsPropertyReference(V) is true.
  2. If IsSuperReference(V) is true, return V.[[ThisValue]]; otherwise return V.[[Base]].

6.2.5.8 InitializeReferencedBinding ( V, W )

The abstract operation InitializeReferencedBinding takes arguments V (a Reference Record) and W (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing unused or an abrupt completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Assert: IsUnresolvableReference(V) is false.
  2. Let base be V.[[Base]].
  3. Assert: base is an Environment Record.
  4. Return ? base.InitializeBinding(V.[[ReferencedName]], W).

6.2.5.9 MakePrivateReference ( baseValue, privateIdentifier )

The abstract operation MakePrivateReference takes arguments baseValue (an ECMAScript language value) and privateIdentifier (a String) and returns a Reference Record. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let privateEnv be the running execution context's PrivateEnvironment.
  2. Assert: privateEnv is not null.
  3. Let privateName be ResolvePrivateIdentifier(privateEnv, privateIdentifier).
  4. Return the Reference Record { [[Base]]: baseValue, [[ReferencedName]]: privateName, [[Strict]]: true, [[ThisValue]]: empty }.

6.2.6 The Property Descriptor Specification Type

The Property Descriptor type is used to explain the manipulation and reification of Object property attributes. A Property Descriptor is a Record with zero or more fields, where each field's name is an attribute name and its value is a corresponding attribute value as specified in 6.1.7.1. The schema name used within this specification to tag literal descriptions of Property Descriptor records is โ€œPropertyDescriptorโ€.

Property Descriptor values may be further classified as data Property Descriptors and accessor Property Descriptors based upon the existence or use of certain fields. A data Property Descriptor is one that includes any fields named either [[Value]] or [[Writable]]. An accessor Property Descriptor is one that includes any fields named either [[Get]] or [[Set]]. Any Property Descriptor may have fields named [[Enumerable]] and [[Configurable]]. A Property Descriptor value may not be both a data Property Descriptor and an accessor Property Descriptor; however, it may be neither (in which case it is a generic Property Descriptor). A fully populated Property Descriptor is one that is either an accessor Property Descriptor or a data Property Descriptor and that has all of the corresponding fields defined in Table 3.

The following abstract operations are used in this specification to operate upon Property Descriptor values:

6.2.6.1 IsAccessorDescriptor ( Desc )

The abstract operation IsAccessorDescriptor takes argument Desc (a Property Descriptor or undefined) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If Desc is undefined, return false.
  2. If Desc has a [[Get]] field, return true.
  3. If Desc has a [[Set]] field, return true.
  4. Return false.

6.2.6.2 IsDataDescriptor ( Desc )

The abstract operation IsDataDescriptor takes argument Desc (a Property Descriptor or undefined) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If Desc is undefined, return false.
  2. If Desc has a [[Value]] field, return true.
  3. If Desc has a [[Writable]] field, return true.
  4. Return false.

6.2.6.3 IsGenericDescriptor ( Desc )

The abstract operation IsGenericDescriptor takes argument Desc (a Property Descriptor or undefined) and returns a Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If Desc is undefined, return false.
  2. If IsAccessorDescriptor(Desc) is true, return false.
  3. If IsDataDescriptor(Desc) is true, return false.
  4. Return true.

6.2.6.4 FromPropertyDescriptor ( Desc )

The abstract operation FromPropertyDescriptor takes argument Desc (a Property Descriptor or undefined) and returns an Object or undefined. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If Desc is undefined, return undefined.
  2. Let obj be OrdinaryObjectCreate(%Object.prototype%).
  3. Assert: obj is an extensible ordinary object with no own properties.
  4. If Desc has a [[Value]] field, then
    1. Perform ! CreateDataPropertyOrThrow(obj, "value", Desc.[[Value]]).
  5. If Desc has a [[Writable]] field, then
    1. Perform ! CreateDataPropertyOrThrow(obj, "writable", Desc.[[Writable]]).
  6. If Desc has a [[Get]] field, then
    1. Perform ! CreateDataPropertyOrThrow(obj, "get", Desc.[[Get]]).
  7. If Desc has a [[Set]] field, then
    1. Perform ! CreateDataPropertyOrThrow(obj, "set", Desc.[[Set]]).
  8. If Desc has an [[Enumerable]] field, then
    1. Perform ! CreateDataPropertyOrThrow(obj, "enumerable", Desc.[[Enumerable]]).
  9. If Desc has a [[Configurable]] field, then
    1. Perform ! CreateDataPropertyOrThrow(obj, "configurable", Desc.[[Configurable]]).
  10. Return obj.

6.2.6.5 ToPropertyDescriptor ( Obj )

The abstract operation ToPropertyDescriptor takes argument Obj (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a Property Descriptor or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If Obj is not an Object, throw a TypeError exception.
  2. Let desc be a new Property Descriptor that initially has no fields.
  3. Let hasEnumerable be ? HasProperty(Obj, "enumerable").
  4. If hasEnumerable is true, then
    1. Let enumerable be ToBoolean(? Get(Obj, "enumerable")).
    2. Set desc.[[Enumerable]] to enumerable.
  5. Let hasConfigurable be ? HasProperty(Obj, "configurable").
  6. If hasConfigurable is true, then
    1. Let configurable be ToBoolean(? Get(Obj, "configurable")).
    2. Set desc.[[Configurable]] to configurable.
  7. Let hasValue be ? HasProperty(Obj, "value").
  8. If hasValue is true, then
    1. Let value be ? Get(Obj, "value").
    2. Set desc.[[Value]] to value.
  9. Let hasWritable be ? HasProperty(Obj, "writable").
  10. If hasWritable is true, then
    1. Let writable be ToBoolean(? Get(Obj, "writable")).
    2. Set desc.[[Writable]] to writable.
  11. Let hasGet be ? HasProperty(Obj, "get").
  12. If hasGet is true, then
    1. Let getter be ? Get(Obj, "get").
    2. If IsCallable(getter) is false and getter is not undefined, throw a TypeError exception.
    3. Set desc.[[Get]] to getter.
  13. Let hasSet be ? HasProperty(Obj, "set").
  14. If hasSet is true, then
    1. Let setter be ? Get(Obj, "set").
    2. If IsCallable(setter) is false and setter is not undefined, throw a TypeError exception.
    3. Set desc.[[Set]] to setter.
  15. If desc has a [[Get]] field or desc has a [[Set]] field, then
    1. If desc has a [[Value]] field or desc has a [[Writable]] field, throw a TypeError exception.
  16. Return desc.

6.2.6.6 CompletePropertyDescriptor ( Desc )

The abstract operation CompletePropertyDescriptor takes argument Desc (a Property Descriptor) and returns unused. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let like be the Record { [[Value]]: undefined, [[Writable]]: false, [[Get]]: undefined, [[Set]]: undefined, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: false }.
  2. If IsGenericDescriptor(Desc) is true or IsDataDescriptor(Desc) is true, then
    1. If Desc does not have a [[Value]] field, set Desc.[[Value]] to like.[[Value]].
    2. If Desc does not have a [[Writable]] field, set Desc.[[Writable]] to like.[[Writable]].
  3. Else,
    1. If Desc does not have a [[Get]] field, set Desc.[[Get]] to like.[[Get]].
    2. If Desc does not have a [[Set]] field, set Desc.[[Set]] to like.[[Set]].
  4. If Desc does not have an [[Enumerable]] field, set Desc.[[Enumerable]] to like.[[Enumerable]].
  5. If Desc does not have a [[Configurable]] field, set Desc.[[Configurable]] to like.[[Configurable]].
  6. Return unused.

6.2.7 The Environment Record Specification Type

The Environment Record type is used to explain the behaviour of name resolution in nested functions and blocks. This type and the operations upon it are defined in 9.1.

6.2.8 The Abstract Closure Specification Type

The Abstract Closure specification type is used to refer to algorithm steps together with a collection of values. Abstract Closures are meta-values and are invoked using function application style such as closure(arg1, arg2). Like abstract operations, invocations perform the algorithm steps described by the Abstract Closure.

In algorithm steps that create an Abstract Closure, values are captured with the verb "capture" followed by a list of aliases. When an Abstract Closure is created, it captures the value that is associated with each alias at that time. In steps that specify the algorithm to be performed when an Abstract Closure is called, each captured value is referred to by the alias that was used to capture the value.

If an Abstract Closure returns a Completion Record, that Completion Record must be either a normal completion or a throw completion.

Abstract Closures are created inline as part of other algorithms, shown in the following example.

  1. Let addend be 41.
  2. Let closure be a new Abstract Closure with parameters (x) that captures addend and performs the following steps when called:
    1. Return x + addend.
  3. Let val be closure(1).
  4. Assert: val is 42.

6.2.9 Data Blocks

The Data Block specification type is used to describe a distinct and mutable sequence of byte-sized (8 bit) numeric values. A byte value is an integer in the inclusive interval from 0 to 255. A Data Block value is created with a fixed number of bytes that each have the initial value 0.

For notational convenience within this specification, an array-like syntax can be used to access the individual bytes of a Data Block value. This notation presents a Data Block value as a 0-based integer-indexed sequence of bytes. For example, if db is a 5 byte Data Block value then db[2] can be used to access its 3rd byte.

A data block that resides in memory that can be referenced from multiple agents concurrently is designated a Shared Data Block. A Shared Data Block has an identity (for the purposes of equality testing Shared Data Block values) that is address-free: it is tied not to the virtual addresses the block is mapped to in any process, but to the set of locations in memory that the block represents. Two data blocks are equal only if the sets of the locations they contain are equal; otherwise, they are not equal and the intersection of the sets of locations they contain is empty. Finally, Shared Data Blocks can be distinguished from Data Blocks.

The semantics of Shared Data Blocks is defined using Shared Data Block events by the memory model. Abstract operations below introduce Shared Data Block events and act as the interface between evaluation semantics and the event semantics of the memory model. The events form a candidate execution, on which the memory model acts as a filter. Please consult the memory model for full semantics.

Shared Data Block events are modelled by Records, defined in the memory model.

The following abstract operations are used in this specification to operate upon Data Block values:

6.2.9.1 CreateByteDataBlock ( size )

The abstract operation CreateByteDataBlock takes argument size (a non-negative integer) and returns either a normal completion containing a Data Block or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If size > 253 - 1, throw a RangeError exception.
  2. Let db be a new Data Block value consisting of size bytes. If it is impossible to create such a Data Block, throw a RangeError exception.
  3. Set all of the bytes of db to 0.
  4. Return db.

6.2.9.2 CreateSharedByteDataBlock ( size )

The abstract operation CreateSharedByteDataBlock takes argument size (a non-negative integer) and returns either a normal completion containing a Shared Data Block or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let db be a new Shared Data Block value consisting of size bytes. If it is impossible to create such a Shared Data Block, throw a RangeError exception.
  2. Let execution be the [[CandidateExecution]] field of the surrounding agent's Agent Record.
  3. Let eventsRecord be the Agent Events Record of execution.[[EventsRecords]] whose [[AgentSignifier]] is AgentSignifier().
  4. Let zero be ยซ 0 ยป.
  5. For each index i of db, do
    1. Append WriteSharedMemory { [[Order]]: init, [[NoTear]]: true, [[Block]]: db, [[ByteIndex]]: i, [[ElementSize]]: 1, [[Payload]]: zero } to eventsRecord.[[EventList]].
  6. Return db.

6.2.9.3 CopyDataBlockBytes ( toBlock, toIndex, fromBlock, fromIndex, count )

The abstract operation CopyDataBlockBytes takes arguments toBlock (a Data Block or a Shared Data Block), toIndex (a non-negative integer), fromBlock (a Data Block or a Shared Data Block), fromIndex (a non-negative integer), and count (a non-negative integer) and returns unused. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Assert: fromBlock and toBlock are distinct values.
  2. Let fromSize be the number of bytes in fromBlock.
  3. Assert: fromIndex + count โ‰ค fromSize.
  4. Let toSize be the number of bytes in toBlock.
  5. Assert: toIndex + count โ‰ค toSize.
  6. Repeat, while count > 0,
    1. If fromBlock is a Shared Data Block, then
      1. Let execution be the [[CandidateExecution]] field of the surrounding agent's Agent Record.
      2. Let eventsRecord be the Agent Events Record of execution.[[EventsRecords]] whose [[AgentSignifier]] is AgentSignifier().
      3. Let bytes be a List whose sole element is a nondeterministically chosen byte value.
      4. NOTE: In implementations, bytes is the result of a non-atomic read instruction on the underlying hardware. The nondeterminism is a semantic prescription of the memory model to describe observable behaviour of hardware with weak consistency.
      5. Let readEvent be ReadSharedMemory { [[Order]]: unordered, [[NoTear]]: true, [[Block]]: fromBlock, [[ByteIndex]]: fromIndex, [[ElementSize]]: 1 }.
      6. Append readEvent to eventsRecord.[[EventList]].
      7. Append Chosen Value Record { [[Event]]: readEvent, [[ChosenValue]]: bytes } to execution.[[ChosenValues]].
      8. If toBlock is a Shared Data Block, then
        1. Append WriteSharedMemory { [[Order]]: unordered, [[NoTear]]: true, [[Block]]: toBlock, [[ByteIndex]]: toIndex, [[ElementSize]]: 1, [[Payload]]: bytes } to eventsRecord.[[EventList]].
      9. Else,
        1. Set toBlock[toIndex] to bytes[0].
    2. Else,
      1. Assert: toBlock is not a Shared Data Block.
      2. Set toBlock[toIndex] to fromBlock[fromIndex].
    3. Set toIndex to toIndex + 1.
    4. Set fromIndex to fromIndex + 1.
    5. Set count to count - 1.
  7. Return unused.

6.2.10 The PrivateElement Specification Type

The PrivateElement type is a Record used in the specification of private class fields, methods, and accessors. Although Property Descriptors are not used for private elements, private fields behave similarly to non-configurable, non-enumerable, writable data properties, private methods behave similarly to non-configurable, non-enumerable, non-writable data properties, and private accessors behave similarly to non-configurable, non-enumerable accessor properties.

Values of the PrivateElement type are Record values whose fields are defined by Table 9. Such values are referred to as PrivateElements.

Table 9: PrivateElement Fields
Field Name Values of the [[Kind]] field for which it is present Value Meaning
[[Key]] All a Private Name The name of the field, method, or accessor.
[[Kind]] All field, method, or accessor The kind of the element.
[[Value]] field and method an ECMAScript language value The value of the field.
[[Get]] accessor a function object or undefined The getter for a private accessor.
[[Set]] accessor a function object or undefined The setter for a private accessor.

6.2.11 The ClassFieldDefinition Record Specification Type

The ClassFieldDefinition type is a Record used in the specification of class fields.

Values of the ClassFieldDefinition type are Record values whose fields are defined by Table 10. Such values are referred to as ClassFieldDefinition Records.

Table 10: ClassFieldDefinition Record Fields
Field Name Value Meaning
[[Name]] a Private Name, a String, or a Symbol The name of the field.
[[Initializer]] an ECMAScript function object or empty The initializer of the field, if any.

6.2.12 Private Names

The Private Name specification type is used to describe a globally unique value (one which differs from any other Private Name, even if they are otherwise indistinguishable) which represents the key of a private class element (field, method, or accessor). Each Private Name has an associated immutable [[Description]] which is a String value. A Private Name may be installed on any ECMAScript object with PrivateFieldAdd or PrivateMethodOrAccessorAdd, and then read or written using PrivateGet and PrivateSet.

6.2.13 The ClassStaticBlockDefinition Record Specification Type

A ClassStaticBlockDefinition Record is a Record value used to encapsulate the executable code for a class static initialization block.

ClassStaticBlockDefinition Records have the fields listed in Table 11.

Table 11: ClassStaticBlockDefinition Record Fields
Field Name Value Meaning
[[BodyFunction]] an ECMAScript function object The function object to be called during static initialization of a class.

7 Abstract Operations

These operations are not a part of the ECMAScript language; they are defined here solely to aid the specification of the semantics of the ECMAScript language. Other, more specialized abstract operations are defined throughout this specification.

7.1 Type Conversion

The ECMAScript language implicitly performs automatic type conversion as needed. To clarify the semantics of certain constructs it is useful to define a set of conversion abstract operations. The conversion abstract operations are polymorphic; they can accept a value of any ECMAScript language type. But no other specification types are used with these operations.

The BigInt type has no implicit conversions in the ECMAScript language; programmers must call BigInt explicitly to convert values from other types.

7.1.1 ToPrimitive ( input [ , preferredType ] )

The abstract operation ToPrimitive takes argument input (an ECMAScript language value) and optional argument preferredType (string or number) and returns either a normal completion containing an ECMAScript language value or a throw completion. It converts its input argument to a non-Object type. If an object is capable of converting to more than one primitive type, it may use the optional hint preferredType to favour that type. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If input is an Object, then
    1. Let exoticToPrim be ? GetMethod(input, %Symbol.toPrimitive%).
    2. If exoticToPrim is not undefined, then
      1. If preferredType is not present, then
        1. Let hint be "default".
      2. Else if preferredType is string, then
        1. Let hint be "string".
      3. Else,
        1. Assert: preferredType is number.
        2. Let hint be "number".
      4. Let result be ? Call(exoticToPrim, input, ยซ hint ยป).
      5. If result is not an Object, return result.
      6. Throw a TypeError exception.
    3. If preferredType is not present, let preferredType be number.
    4. Return ? OrdinaryToPrimitive(input, preferredType).
  2. Return input.
Note

When ToPrimitive is called without a hint, then it generally behaves as if the hint were number. However, objects may over-ride this behaviour by defining a %Symbol.toPrimitive% method. Of the objects defined in this specification only Dates (see 21.4.4.45) and Symbol objects (see 20.4.3.5) over-ride the default ToPrimitive behaviour. Dates treat the absence of a hint as if the hint were string.

7.1.1.1 OrdinaryToPrimitive ( O, hint )

The abstract operation OrdinaryToPrimitive takes arguments O (an Object) and hint (string or number) and returns either a normal completion containing an ECMAScript language value or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If hint is string, then
    1. Let methodNames be ยซ "toString", "valueOf" ยป.
  2. Else,
    1. Let methodNames be ยซ "valueOf", "toString" ยป.
  3. For each element name of methodNames, do
    1. Let method be ? Get(O, name).
    2. If IsCallable(method) is true, then
      1. Let result be ? Call(method, O).
      2. If result is not an Object, return result.
  4. Throw a TypeError exception.

7.1.2 ToBoolean ( argument )

The abstract operation ToBoolean takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a Boolean. It converts argument to a value of type Boolean. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is a Boolean, return argument.
  2. If argument is one of undefined, null, +0๐”ฝ, -0๐”ฝ, NaN, 0โ„ค, or the empty String, return false.
  3. NOTE: This step is replaced in section B.3.6.1.
  4. Return true.

7.1.3 ToNumeric ( value )

The abstract operation ToNumeric takes argument value (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing either a Number or a BigInt, or a throw completion. It returns value converted to a Number or a BigInt. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let primValue be ? ToPrimitive(value, number).
  2. If primValue is a BigInt, return primValue.
  3. Return ? ToNumber(primValue).

7.1.4 ToNumber ( argument )

The abstract operation ToNumber takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to a value of type Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is a Number, return argument.
  2. If argument is either a Symbol or a BigInt, throw a TypeError exception.
  3. If argument is undefined, return NaN.
  4. If argument is either null or false, return +0๐”ฝ.
  5. If argument is true, return 1๐”ฝ.
  6. If argument is a String, return StringToNumber(argument).
  7. Assert: argument is an Object.
  8. Let primValue be ? ToPrimitive(argument, number).
  9. Assert: primValue is not an Object.
  10. Return ? ToNumber(primValue).

7.1.4.1 ToNumber Applied to the String Type

The abstract operation StringToNumber specifies how to convert a String value to a Number value, using the following grammar.

Syntax

StringNumericLiteral ::: StrWhiteSpaceopt StrWhiteSpaceopt StrNumericLiteral StrWhiteSpaceopt StrWhiteSpace ::: StrWhiteSpaceChar StrWhiteSpaceopt StrWhiteSpaceChar ::: WhiteSpace LineTerminator StrNumericLiteral ::: StrDecimalLiteral NonDecimalIntegerLiteral[~Sep] StrDecimalLiteral ::: StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral + StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral - StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral ::: Infinity DecimalDigits[~Sep] . DecimalDigits[~Sep]opt ExponentPart[~Sep]opt . DecimalDigits[~Sep] ExponentPart[~Sep]opt DecimalDigits[~Sep] ExponentPart[~Sep]opt

All grammar symbols not explicitly defined above have the definitions used in the Lexical Grammar for numeric literals (12.9.3)

Note

Some differences should be noted between the syntax of a StringNumericLiteral and a NumericLiteral:

7.1.4.1.1 StringToNumber ( str )

The abstract operation StringToNumber takes argument str (a String) and returns a Number. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let literal be ParseText(str, StringNumericLiteral).
  2. If literal is a List of errors, return NaN.
  3. Return the StringNumericValue of literal.

7.1.4.1.2 Runtime Semantics: StringNumericValue

The syntax-directed operation StringNumericValue takes no arguments and returns a Number.

Note

The conversion of a StringNumericLiteral to a Number value is similar overall to the determination of the NumericValue of a NumericLiteral (see 12.9.3), but some of the details are different.

It is defined piecewise over the following productions:

StringNumericLiteral ::: StrWhiteSpaceopt
  1. Return +0๐”ฝ.
StringNumericLiteral ::: StrWhiteSpaceopt StrNumericLiteral StrWhiteSpaceopt
  1. Return the StringNumericValue of StrNumericLiteral.
StrNumericLiteral ::: NonDecimalIntegerLiteral
  1. Return ๐”ฝ(MV of NonDecimalIntegerLiteral).
StrDecimalLiteral ::: - StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral
  1. Let a be the StringNumericValue of StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral.
  2. If a is +0๐”ฝ, return -0๐”ฝ.
  3. Return -a.
StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral ::: Infinity
  1. Return +โˆž๐”ฝ.
StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral ::: DecimalDigits . DecimalDigitsopt ExponentPartopt
  1. Let a be the MV of the first DecimalDigits.
  2. If the second DecimalDigits is present, then
    1. Let b be the MV of the second DecimalDigits.
    2. Let n be the number of code points in the second DecimalDigits.
  3. Else,
    1. Let b be 0.
    2. Let n be 0.
  4. If ExponentPart is present, let e be the MV of ExponentPart. Otherwise, let e be 0.
  5. Return RoundMVResult((a + (b ร— 10-n)) ร— 10e).
StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral ::: . DecimalDigits ExponentPartopt
  1. Let b be the MV of DecimalDigits.
  2. If ExponentPart is present, let e be the MV of ExponentPart. Otherwise, let e be 0.
  3. Let n be the number of code points in DecimalDigits.
  4. Return RoundMVResult(b ร— 10e - n).
StrUnsignedDecimalLiteral ::: DecimalDigits ExponentPartopt
  1. Let a be the MV of DecimalDigits.
  2. If ExponentPart is present, let e be the MV of ExponentPart. Otherwise, let e be 0.
  3. Return RoundMVResult(a ร— 10e).

7.1.4.1.3 RoundMVResult ( n )

The abstract operation RoundMVResult takes argument n (a mathematical value) and returns a Number. It converts n to a Number in an implementation-defined manner. For the purposes of this abstract operation, a digit is significant if it is not zero or there is a non-zero digit to its left and there is a non-zero digit to its right. For the purposes of this abstract operation, "the mathematical value denoted by" a representation of a mathematical value is the inverse of "the decimal representation of" a mathematical value. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If the decimal representation of n has 20 or fewer significant digits, return ๐”ฝ(n).
  2. Let option1 be the mathematical value denoted by the result of replacing each significant digit in the decimal representation of n after the 20th with a 0 digit.
  3. Let option2 be the mathematical value denoted by the result of replacing each significant digit in the decimal representation of n after the 20th with a 0 digit and then incrementing it at the 20th position (with carrying as necessary).
  4. Let chosen be an implementation-defined choice of either option1 or option2.
  5. Return ๐”ฝ(chosen).

7.1.5 ToIntegerOrInfinity ( argument )

The abstract operation ToIntegerOrInfinity takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing either an integer, +โˆž, or -โˆž, or a throw completion. It converts argument to an integer representing its Number value with fractional part truncated, or to +โˆž or -โˆž when that Number value is infinite. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is one of NaN, +0๐”ฝ, or -0๐”ฝ, return 0.
  3. If number is +โˆž๐”ฝ, return +โˆž.
  4. If number is -โˆž๐”ฝ, return -โˆž.
  5. Return truncate(โ„(number)).
Note
๐”ฝ(ToIntegerOrInfinity(x)) never returns -0๐”ฝ for any value of x. The truncation of the fractional part is performed after converting x to a mathematical value.

7.1.6 ToInt32 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToInt32 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 232 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from ๐”ฝ(-231) to ๐”ฝ(231 - 1). It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is not finite or number is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let int be truncate(โ„(number)).
  4. Let int32bit be int modulo 232.
  5. If int32bit โ‰ฅ 231, return ๐”ฝ(int32bit - 232); otherwise return ๐”ฝ(int32bit).
Note

Given the above definition of ToInt32:

  • The ToInt32 abstract operation is idempotent: if applied to a result that it produced, the second application leaves that value unchanged.
  • ToInt32(ToUint32(x)) is the same value as ToInt32(x) for all values of x. (It is to preserve this latter property that +โˆž๐”ฝ and -โˆž๐”ฝ are mapped to +0๐”ฝ.)
  • ToInt32 maps -0๐”ฝ to +0๐”ฝ.

7.1.7 ToUint32 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToUint32 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 232 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from +0๐”ฝ to ๐”ฝ(232 - 1). It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is not finite or number is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let int be truncate(โ„(number)).
  4. Let int32bit be int modulo 232.
  5. Return ๐”ฝ(int32bit).
Note

Given the above definition of ToUint32:

  • Step 5 is the only difference between ToUint32 and ToInt32.
  • The ToUint32 abstract operation is idempotent: if applied to a result that it produced, the second application leaves that value unchanged.
  • ToUint32(ToInt32(x)) is the same value as ToUint32(x) for all values of x. (It is to preserve this latter property that +โˆž๐”ฝ and -โˆž๐”ฝ are mapped to +0๐”ฝ.)
  • ToUint32 maps -0๐”ฝ to +0๐”ฝ.

7.1.8 ToInt16 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToInt16 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 216 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from ๐”ฝ(-215) to ๐”ฝ(215 - 1). It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is not finite or number is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let int be truncate(โ„(number)).
  4. Let int16bit be int modulo 216.
  5. If int16bit โ‰ฅ 215, return ๐”ฝ(int16bit - 216); otherwise return ๐”ฝ(int16bit).

7.1.9 ToUint16 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToUint16 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 216 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from +0๐”ฝ to ๐”ฝ(216 - 1). It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is not finite or number is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let int be truncate(โ„(number)).
  4. Let int16bit be int modulo 216.
  5. Return ๐”ฝ(int16bit).
Note

Given the above definition of ToUint16:

  • The substitution of 216 for 232 in step 4 is the only difference between ToUint32 and ToUint16.
  • ToUint16 maps -0๐”ฝ to +0๐”ฝ.

7.1.10 ToInt8 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToInt8 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 28 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from -128๐”ฝ to 127๐”ฝ. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is not finite or number is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let int be truncate(โ„(number)).
  4. Let int8bit be int modulo 28.
  5. If int8bit โ‰ฅ 27, return ๐”ฝ(int8bit - 28); otherwise return ๐”ฝ(int8bit).

7.1.11 ToUint8 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToUint8 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 28 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from +0๐”ฝ to 255๐”ฝ. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is not finite or number is either +0๐”ฝ or -0๐”ฝ, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let int be truncate(โ„(number)).
  4. Let int8bit be int modulo 28.
  5. Return ๐”ฝ(int8bit).

7.1.12 ToUint8Clamp ( argument )

The abstract operation ToUint8Clamp takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an integral Number or a throw completion. It clamps and rounds argument to one of 28 integral Number values in the inclusive interval from +0๐”ฝ to 255๐”ฝ. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let number be ? ToNumber(argument).
  2. If number is NaN, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Let mv be the extended mathematical value of number.
  4. Let clamped be the result of clamping mv between 0 and 255.
  5. Let f be floor(clamped).
  6. If clamped < f + 0.5, return ๐”ฝ(f).
  7. If clamped > f + 0.5, return ๐”ฝ(f + 1).
  8. If f is even, return ๐”ฝ(f). Otherwise, return ๐”ฝ(f + 1).
Note

Unlike most other ECMAScript integer conversion operations, ToUint8Clamp rounds rather than truncates non-integral values. It also uses โ€œround half to evenโ€ tie-breaking, which differs from the โ€œround half upโ€ tie-breaking of Math.round.

7.1.13 ToBigInt ( argument )

The abstract operation ToBigInt takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion. It converts argument to a BigInt value, or throws if an implicit conversion from Number would be required. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let prim be ? ToPrimitive(argument, number).
  2. Return the value that prim corresponds to in Table 12.
Table 12: BigInt Conversions
Argument Type Result
Undefined Throw a TypeError exception.
Null Throw a TypeError exception.
Boolean Return 1n if prim is true and 0n if prim is false.
BigInt Return prim.
Number Throw a TypeError exception.
String
  1. Let n be StringToBigInt(prim).
  2. If n is undefined, throw a SyntaxError exception.
  3. Return n.
Symbol Throw a TypeError exception.

7.1.14 StringToBigInt ( str )

The abstract operation StringToBigInt takes argument str (a String) and returns a BigInt or undefined. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let literal be ParseText(str, StringIntegerLiteral).
  2. If literal is a List of errors, return undefined.
  3. Let mv be the MV of literal.
  4. Assert: mv is an integer.
  5. Return โ„ค(mv).

7.1.14.1 StringIntegerLiteral Grammar

StringToBigInt uses the following grammar.

Syntax

StringIntegerLiteral ::: StrWhiteSpaceopt StrWhiteSpaceopt StrIntegerLiteral StrWhiteSpaceopt StrIntegerLiteral ::: SignedInteger[~Sep] NonDecimalIntegerLiteral[~Sep]

7.1.14.2 Runtime Semantics: MV

7.1.15 ToBigInt64 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToBigInt64 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 264 BigInt values in the inclusive interval from โ„ค(-263) to โ„ค(263 - 1). It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let n be ? ToBigInt(argument).
  2. Let int64bit be โ„(n) modulo 264.
  3. If int64bit โ‰ฅ 263, return โ„ค(int64bit - 264); otherwise return โ„ค(int64bit).

7.1.16 ToBigUint64 ( argument )

The abstract operation ToBigUint64 takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a BigInt or a throw completion. It converts argument to one of 264 BigInt values in the inclusive interval from 0โ„ค to โ„ค(264 - 1). It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let n be ? ToBigInt(argument).
  2. Let int64bit be โ„(n) modulo 264.
  3. Return โ„ค(int64bit).

7.1.17 ToString ( argument )

The abstract operation ToString takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a String or a throw completion. It converts argument to a value of type String. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is a String, return argument.
  2. If argument is a Symbol, throw a TypeError exception.
  3. If argument is undefined, return "undefined".
  4. If argument is null, return "null".
  5. If argument is true, return "true".
  6. If argument is false, return "false".
  7. If argument is a Number, return Number::toString(argument, 10).
  8. If argument is a BigInt, return BigInt::toString(argument, 10).
  9. Assert: argument is an Object.
  10. Let primValue be ? ToPrimitive(argument, string).
  11. Assert: primValue is not an Object.
  12. Return ? ToString(primValue).

7.1.18 ToObject ( argument )

The abstract operation ToObject takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an Object or a throw completion. It converts argument to a value of type Object according to Table 13:

Table 13: ToObject Conversions
Argument Type Result
Undefined Throw a TypeError exception.
Null Throw a TypeError exception.
Boolean Return a new Boolean object whose [[BooleanData]] internal slot is set to argument. See 20.3 for a description of Boolean objects.
Number Return a new Number object whose [[NumberData]] internal slot is set to argument. See 21.1 for a description of Number objects.
String Return a new String object whose [[StringData]] internal slot is set to argument. See 22.1 for a description of String objects.
Symbol Return a new Symbol object whose [[SymbolData]] internal slot is set to argument. See 20.4 for a description of Symbol objects.
BigInt Return a new BigInt object whose [[BigIntData]] internal slot is set to argument. See 21.2 for a description of BigInt objects.
Object Return argument.

7.1.19 ToPropertyKey ( argument )

The abstract operation ToPropertyKey takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a property key or a throw completion. It converts argument to a value that can be used as a property key. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let key be ? ToPrimitive(argument, string).
  2. If key is a Symbol, then
    1. Return key.
  3. Return ! ToString(key).

7.1.20 ToLength ( argument )

The abstract operation ToLength takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a non-negative integral Number or a throw completion. It clamps and truncates argument to a non-negative integral Number suitable for use as the length of an array-like object. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let len be ? ToIntegerOrInfinity(argument).
  2. If len โ‰ค 0, return +0๐”ฝ.
  3. Return ๐”ฝ(min(len, 253 - 1)).

7.1.21 CanonicalNumericIndexString ( argument )

The abstract operation CanonicalNumericIndexString takes argument argument (a String) and returns a Number or undefined. If argument is either "-0" or exactly matches ToString(n) for some Number value n, it returns the respective Number value. Otherwise, it returns undefined. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is "-0", return -0๐”ฝ.
  2. Let n be ! ToNumber(argument).
  3. If ! ToString(n) is argument, return n.
  4. Return undefined.

A canonical numeric string is any String value for which the CanonicalNumericIndexString abstract operation does not return undefined.

7.1.22 ToIndex ( value )

The abstract operation ToIndex takes argument value (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a non-negative integer or a throw completion. It converts value to an integer and returns that integer if it is non-negative and corresponds with an integer index. Otherwise, it throws an exception. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let integer be ? ToIntegerOrInfinity(value).
  2. If integer is not in the inclusive interval from 0 to 253 - 1, throw a RangeError exception.
  3. Return integer.

7.2 Testing and Comparison Operations

7.2.1 RequireObjectCoercible ( argument )

The abstract operation RequireObjectCoercible takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing an ECMAScript language value or a throw completion. It throws an error if argument is a value that cannot be converted to an Object using ToObject. It is defined by Table 14:

Table 14: RequireObjectCoercible Results
Argument Type Result
Undefined Throw a TypeError exception.
Null Throw a TypeError exception.
Boolean Return argument.
Number Return argument.
String Return argument.
Symbol Return argument.
BigInt Return argument.
Object Return argument.

7.2.2 IsArray ( argument )

The abstract operation IsArray takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a Boolean or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is not an Object, return false.
  2. If argument is an Array exotic object, return true.
  3. If argument is a Proxy exotic object, then
    1. Perform ? ValidateNonRevokedProxy(argument).
    2. Let proxyTarget be argument.[[ProxyTarget]].
    3. Return ? IsArray(proxyTarget).
  4. Return false.

7.2.3 IsCallable ( argument )

The abstract operation IsCallable takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a Boolean. It determines if argument is a callable function with a [[Call]] internal method. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is not an Object, return false.
  2. If argument has a [[Call]] internal method, return true.
  3. Return false.

7.2.4 IsConstructor ( argument )

The abstract operation IsConstructor takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a Boolean. It determines if argument is a function object with a [[Construct]] internal method. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is not an Object, return false.
  2. If argument has a [[Construct]] internal method, return true.
  3. Return false.

7.2.5 IsExtensible ( O )

The abstract operation IsExtensible takes argument O (an Object) and returns either a normal completion containing a Boolean or a throw completion. It is used to determine whether additional properties can be added to O. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Return ? O.[[IsExtensible]]().

7.2.6 IsRegExp ( argument )

The abstract operation IsRegExp takes argument argument (an ECMAScript language value) and returns either a normal completion containing a Boolean or a throw completion. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If argument is not an Object, return false.
  2. Let matcher be ? Get(argument, %Symbol.match%).
  3. If matcher is not undefined, return ToBoolean(matcher).
  4. If argument has a [[RegExpMatcher]] internal slot, return true.
  5. Return false.

7.2.7 Static Semantics: IsStringWellFormedUnicode ( string )

The abstract operation IsStringWellFormedUnicode takes argument string (a String) and returns a Boolean. It interprets string as a sequence of UTF-16 encoded code points, as described in 6.1.4, and determines whether it is a well formed UTF-16 sequence. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. Let len be the length of string.
  2. Let k be 0.
  3. Repeat, while k < len,
    1. Let cp be CodePointAt(string, k).
    2. If cp.[[IsUnpairedSurrogate]] is true, return false.
    3. Set k to k + cp.[[CodeUnitCount]].
  4. Return true.

7.2.8 SameType ( x, y )

The abstract operation SameType takes arguments x (an ECMAScript language value) and y (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a Boolean. It determines whether or not the two arguments are the same type. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If x is undefined and y is undefined, return true.
  2. If x is null and y is null, return true.
  3. If x is a Boolean and y is a Boolean, return true.
  4. If x is a Number and y is a Number, return true.
  5. If x is a BigInt and y is a BigInt, return true.
  6. If x is a Symbol and y is a Symbol, return true.
  7. If x is a String and y is a String, return true.
  8. If x is an Object and y is an Object, return true.
  9. Return false.

7.2.9 SameValue ( x, y )

The abstract operation SameValue takes arguments x (an ECMAScript language value) and y (an ECMAScript language value) and returns a Boolean. It determines whether or not the two arguments are the same value. It performs the following steps when called:

  1. If SameType(x, y) is false, return false.
  2. If x is a Number, then
    1. Return Number::sameValue(x, y).
  3. Return SameValueNonNumber(x, y).
Note

This algorithm differs from the IsStrictlyEqual Algorithm by treating all NaN values as equivalent and by differentiating +0๐”ฝ from -0๐”ฝ.